


His Path

by WingedLadyColette



Category: Naruto, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, F/M, Friendship/Love, Jedi, M/M, Ninjas as Jedi, Planet, The Force, Travels, galaxy, savior
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-07-15 11:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7221343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedLadyColette/pseuds/WingedLadyColette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taken from his home planet, Itachi must learn how to adjust in the large, unforgiving universe with unlikely friends and new allies. He must learn the ways of life he never thought he was suited for, and walk two paths; one as Itachi Uchiha and one as Darth Revan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Taken

It's a dark, warm night. The moon is full and shines overhead, menacingly. Mockingly. It's so close tot he middle of the night, when all the world should be sleeping. There is a shift in the trees that goes against the winds.

Something rushes through the forest, keeping close to the ground in order to move faster and out of the direct moonlight in order to hide from those that pursue it. The shadow pauses under a large tree, using the shadow cast by the lushes, full branches to offer some protection while it scans the area. Red eyes, shimmering with tears, blink quickly in order to send them away so that they can see without trouble.

There is a tremble in the small hand, the hand of a child, that it has to clench in order to still. Sharp, pained breaths from a stitch formed in the side, fill the otherwise quiet night air. The forest is quiet. The shape stains it's hearing to the sound of something large being dragged across the forest floor and the tell-tale hiss of a snake as it hunts for prey.

The child presses his back against the strong bark of the tree behind him, bringing up a hand to his side, trying to sooth the ache there. He has been running for hours and the sweat that has built up on his neck and back, trapped under a simple breast plate of armor.

"Are you alright, Itachi?" a voice whispers.

The boy spins toward the voice to see a shadow stepping out of darkness, a fully grown man wearing a swirly orange mask and all black clothes.

"Madara..." the boy whispers, staring into the single eye socket where the red spinning wheel of death resided, his own eyes narrowing a bit. "Why are you here?"

"To protect my investment," Madara whispers, half heartedly glancing toward the way that the boy - Itachi - had come from, sensing what the young boy could not. The ANBU hunting him were closing in quickly and the boy had already been running for so long it wasn't likely that he would be able to keep this up all the way to the border.

"Do not worry, Itachi," the man turns back toward the boy, walking closer to him. His words are like poison to the young boy, making him shiver in fear and unease. "I will ensure you make it out of here alive. After all, we are family."

The boy doesn't respond, not knowing what to say, he was exhausted and in pain both physically and emotionally. He has been through an ordeal that he's never going to recover from.

Itachi just watched as the ANBU surrounded them, Madara turned tauntingly toward them, letting out a little snicker as they moved toward him first, sensing correctly that he was the bigger threat. They didn't stand a chance. Within moments, it was just the two Uchiha surrounded by five dead ANBU, Madara easily able to dispatch them before turning toward Itachi and stepping aside.

"After you," Madara says, making an arm gesture to the path behind him.

Broken and helpless, the boy obeyed, pushing his shoulders back and making his chin level, the boy races past, knowing he has to get out of the Land of Fire before they run into more Leaf Shinobi. He sends a small, pained farewell to his little brother, whom he will never get to hold in his arms again or see smile at him anymore. It was all over.

Itachi Uchiha was now a rogue. But one day, one day it would all be worth it when Itachi saw his beloved little brother again. All the pain and anguish he feels now, and will in the future, will all be worth it.

 

Itachi opens his eyes, looking around the forest for a moment, trying to get his bearings. It has been three years since he killed his family and forsaken any chance of happiness back in Konoha. He had joined the Akatsuki to watch Madara, but since having joined, Madara disappeared. Itachi knows that the slimy Uchiha was still around though, watching from the shadows. He's always watching, it seems.

"Itachi?" Kisame says, looking over at the black haired sixteen year old, newly made partners. He tilts his head curiously.

Itachi lets his eyes slip closed for a moment, trying to slow down his steadily beating heart. He takes a deep breath before opening his eyes and standing up.

"Are you ready to depart?" Itachi asks quietly, physically tired, even though he spent the last couple of hours resting while Kisame has been keeping watch. Kisame nods, pushing himself to his feet, brining his arms up over his head to stretch his long blue limbs before picking up his wrapped blade that was leaning up against a nearby tree before settling it onto his back.

Itachi stood up slowly, feeling a hundred years old rather than sixteen, rolling his joints around uncomfortably stiff from all this time sleeping outside, but alas, it is the life that he has chose, so he will not complain.

Itachi was straightening out his cloak when the hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he swiftly steps out of the way of a sword strike, surprised that someone had managed to sneak this close to him without him noticing. Itachi turns to look at the strange, decked out in a form of armor that was unlike anything Itachi had ever seen before.

"Woah," Kisame says somewhere behind Itachi, "hello there."

Itachi glances over his shoulder at Kisame to see another man, dressed completely identical to the one attacking Itachi. The teenager turns toward his opponent, stepping out of the way of the next trike, grabbing out his own kunai, brining it up to block the next attack, eyes widening in surprise as the blade easily slices right through the kunai.

Sharingan red eyes widen in surprise before he sends it away, forcing himself to stay focused. He threw the handle away, it's useless to him now. That sword was definitely sharper than he originally gave it credit for. He brings up his leg swiftly and kicks the man hard in the chest sending him flying away into the forest, hitting a nearby tree hard before he hit the ground and stopped moving.

Itachi turns just in time to see Kisame's opponent being crushed under the sheer weight of the Samehada as Kisame brought it down upon his head. Spikes shoot out of the wrapping of the sword, impaling the strange man before he falls unmoving. His back had let out a loud crack and Itachi knew he killed him. He became very aware of the throbbing in the bottom of his foot. That armor was tougher than it looked.

Itachi walks over to him, kneeling down next to the armored man, tilting his head to the side. "I have never seen armor like this," Itachi admits as Kisame puts Samehada back onto his back. "Have you?" Itachi asks, looking up at the older man. Kisame was definitely more worldly than he was.

Kisame shakes his head, kneeling down next to him. "Awfully ballsy of him and his friend to attack us out of the blue like that."

Itachi reaches up to pull the mask off of the man's head, but is unable to remove it. After a few moments of trying to maneuver it off, Itachi finally got the latches on the sides and pushes them out of place so that the mask can be removed, revealing the face of a man Itachi has never seen before. Blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth with scars all over his face. The man had simple, short brown hair and now unseeing brown eyes.

"Do you recognize him?" Kisame asks.

Itachi shook his head. "No."

"Oh," Kisame says, leaning down and picking up some kind of strange device, tinkering with it for a moment. A screen projected out a few inches from the devise showing a single red dot slightly off center. "What's this?"

Itachi stood up, looking down at the screen, not understanding either. He shrugs his shoulders before leaning down again and picking up the blade the other man had, similar to the one that Itachi fought. Itachi studies it curious for a moment before offering it to the kenjutsu specialist.

"I have never seen this kind of blade before, but I am no swordsmen," Itachi says.

Kisame stuffs the device in his pocket and grabs the sword from Itachi taking a moment to examine the blade with a critical eye.

"Huh," Kisame says. "I have never seen this kind of blade either. There doesn't appear to be anything special about the blade. It almost appears as though it was mass produced rather than made by a single smith. There is flaws in the carving that a smith would have noticed. And this metal..." he runs the pad of his thumb along the blade, watching as it sliced through his skin, a bit of blood slipping out between the crack. "I have never seen this type of metal before."

Itachi raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Really?" A type of metal used for a sword that someone like Kisame had never seen before? Now that was something.

"There is something weird about this man," Kisame says.

"Yes..." Itachi agrees, looking down at the man's face. "There is something odd..."

"Should we bring him to Sasori, you think?" Kisame asks, giving the sword another curious glance.

Itachi's eyes flicker toward the forest. "Yes," he says, standing up. "But first we have to take care of some more guests." Both men turn their attention toward the forest as the sun peaks over the horizon, revealing shadows of more men in that strange armor slinking out of the forest toward them.

 

"I'm surprised by how close you were," Kisame says, walking up to the small, hunched over figure of Sasori of the Red Sand. His companion, Kakuzu of Taki, doesn't even spare them a glance, too busy sitting on a rock a few feet away, counting away at the paper bills in his hands. Itachi stares at him for a moment before looking back over at Sasori.

The masked man stares up at them. "You look like hell," Sasori says, looking at Kisame's tattered cloak and then over to Itachi who no longer had his. "What happened?"

"We met some strangers in the forest," Kisame explains. "They had the balls to attack us out of nowhere. First there was two of them, and then there was seven more. They weren't overly impressive, though. They have strange weapons and muskets unlike anything I've ever seen that hurts like hell when they hit you," he gestures toward a terrible burn on his arm before continuing, "but there is something about them that's just strange. Take a look at them, would you?"

Itachi pulls out his sealing scroll, summoning out one of the bodies. Then he stood back as Kisame pealed off the rest of his scorched cloak as Sasori climbed out of the puppet, stoic brown eyes stared down at the body as he began to tamper with the body, figuring out how the clips of the armor worked and removed the pieces from him before holding his hand over the man's body, hand glowing green.

Itachi plays around with some of the man's things, trying to figure out how they worked. The muskets were interesting to him, seeing as they didn't shoot off pellets of metal like regular muskets do, and they are small, compact and made completely of metal. Instead of the pellets, it shoots off some kind of super-heated magma blasts of sorts. But leaves nothing behind other than burns.

But there is other things. There is small, metal balls of different colors, but Itachi didn't know what they were for, so he sets them aside slowly. There is all sorts of different devices but Itachi didn't understand what any of them were.

"This man isn't human," Sasori says, turning to look at Itachi and Kisame. Kakuzu pauses in his counting, interested in Sasori's words.

"Really?" Kisame asks, blue eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Sasori says, red hair blowing in the breeze a bit. "He's organs and bone structure are very similar, but he's built more like a ninja. He has enlarged lungs and highly protected organs, denser bones and tougher skin, but he's not a shinobi. His chakra levels are as low as a civilian's, and he's far too heavy to be a shinobi. He's taller than an average shinobi, too and there is no sign of physical kekki genkai. Other than the physical aspects, I don't think he's a shinobi, but he definitely is a warrior of some sort."

"Perhaps," Kakuzu says, standing up, "we should speak with the Boss. We are close to Ame."

No one had any argument. Itachi sealed everything back up before they headed off toward Ame, with Kakuzu in the lead.

 

It was one of the rare times, in Ame, in which it was not raining, but it was still very dark and hard to see, even in the middle of the evening when it should be pretty bright out. Ame was, by far, the most industrialized place that Itachi had ever been and was in awe at it's splendors, even if he said nothing and did not show it on his face. When they made it to the largest building in the city, they found the boss, usually shrouded in a haze of black with rainbow sheens from their rings, is a man in the same cloak as they, with wild orange hair and man piercings adorning his face and ears.

His crazy, ringed eyes raise to them as they approach.

"What is it?" He asked, voice deep and commanding.

Itachi listens quietly as Kisame explains again about their strange attackers, weapons and tactics, and then to Sasori explaining their physiology. The boss just sat in the lobby in silence, not so much as blinking as they spoke, waiting until they finished before he even moved again. This time, to look around the empty lobby, simple, clean but lit up compared to the outside.

"Interesting..." the boss says.

His ringed eyes flicker up to the ceiling as he swiftly moves to his feet, walking quickly to the door as an explosion goes off in the city.

"Pein!" Konan appears in the doorway, brown eyes wide. "There is some kind of strange floating object in the sky, firing missiles down at the village."

"My lord!" An Ame ninja appears next to her, bowing deeply. "Strange men have infiltrated the city!"

"Konan," Pein says, looking over at the blue haired woman. She nods, reading his eyes before leaving with the ninja to coordinated a defensive while Pein follows them out. "Akatsuki," he addresses them without even turning to look at them, "protect Ame!"

Having no choice but to obey, the two teams head out into the city, running into more of the strange men in armor, now firing upon civilians and ninja alike. And as Konan said, Itachi could barely see something half hiding in the thick black clouds above them. It was strange as once again, Itachi could not sense these people before him. He was not a powerful sensor in any sense of the word, but he did have strong enough senses to be able to pick up on someone sneaking up on them, especially this many, but these people somehow eluded him.

Itachi pauses to see Pein floating in the sky above him, hands raised high over his head as an orb of light goes flying up into the machine in the sky, going inside of it. A moment later, Itachi could hear Pein shout, "Planetary devastation!" and he about fell to his feet at the pressure that barreled down on him. He wasn't the only one, though. Everyone fell to their hands and knees. The civilians crumbles without pause, the shinobi staggered and fell over and the men in armor dropped to their knees before looking up in awe as the machine began to crunch and pull in on itself, imploding in a loud screech and grinding noise that persisted as glass blasted out of the machine and rained down on them.

Itachi watched in a mixture of awe and horror as the machine in the sky was crushed. It was only when the roofs of the tallest buildings around started to get pulled up toward the metal ball that Itachi realized it was some sort of bubble of energy that super compressed whatever was inside. His sharingan was having a hell of a time understanding what it was seeing through all of the chakra in the air.

Once some of the roof of the nearest building rips off and goes flying into the chakra bubble, Pein lowers his hands and the energy begins to ebb away, the metal ball falling down just outside the city with a loud explosion. All of the strange men in armor just stared up at the sky as if they couldn't believe it. Or maybe they were surprised. Itachi couldn't tell because he couldn't see any of their actual body other than the armor.

"Best not waste any more time!" Kisame says, swinging Samehada around before charging at the closest man, catching him off guard before he's easily cut down. And the battle continued.

Itachi watched, half in awe, and half in horror after all of the stragglers were rounded up, and brought to the boss. Pein stood before a row of men without the helmets on their heads, all with short dark hair and eyes and many battle scars, glared up at Pein as he walked in front of them. It was a struggle to get the four men that kneel before Pein even now. They fought tooth and nail and it wasn't until Itachi captured them in genjutsu that they managed to bring them to the Akatsuki leader.

"Who are you?" Pein asks, glaring down at them. "Why have you attacked Ame?"

None of them respond. They just glare up at him, hardened warriors that were not afraid of death. Their eyes shone with resolve. They would say nothing to him. They were not afraid of him.

Pein blinks slowly. "It is of no consequence whether you speak or not," he says simply before walking over to the one closest to Itachi, pausing for a split second before reaching out and putting a hand on the man's head. Pein's eyes adopt this far away look for a moment before he pulls this blue energy from the man's head and absorbs it into his body, much to everyone's surprise and horror.

Pein blinks a few times quickly. He stares off as if seeing something that wasn't there, as his eyes widen. He looks down at the other two with menacing KI leaking out of him. The men stare back at him as if he was a devil that revealed it's true form; horns, flames as a halo, pointy tail, red skin and malice to match. Pein brings up his hand, a black rob sliding out of his sleeve and into his hand. He uses it to quickly kill them.

"Boss?" Kisame says, raising an eyebrow at the man's entire shift in demeanor. There was a chilling presence about him before but now he was downright glacial. He did something to that man, pulling whatever that blue energy - was it chakra? - out of the man in front of him and into himself which Itachi didn't even know was possible, or what he even did, but it changed his entire demeanor, so whatever it was, couldn't have been good.

Itachi doesn't know much about the Akatsuki leader, and he would never claim to, but something about this entire thing seemed very off. Like it shouldn't have worked out this way.

Pein turns around and walks into the building behind him, waving his hand for them to follow after. Itachi takes up the rear as the five Akatsuki, including Konan, who was standing off in the side, follow Pein inside.

"What's up, boss?" Kakuzu asks once they enter the lobby.

Pein turns to look at them. "Conquerors," Pein says, a strange look on his face. "They are conquerors."

Itachi frowns at that, not understanding. "What does that mean? They are here to conquer Ame?"

"Not just," Pein mumbles, shaking his head. "Go, I need you all to go and gather more allies."

"What is this about, Pein?" Konan asks, stepping closer.

"Go, now," Pein snaps, glaring at the four other Akatsuki before turning his gaze to Konan. "Come, Konan, we have to begin suring up Ame's defenses."

Itachi, lost on what exactly was asked of them, was dragged out of the building and now into the pouring rain by Kisame. The tall, blue man shakes his head when Itachi looked up at him curiously.

"What is wrong with him?" Itachi asks, finally, as they exit Ame and into the rice patty fields that surround it. Rice patties being the only things that can really grow in Ame with all of the rain. They walk carefully to avoid falling into them. "What did he mean?" Itachi really felt like a child right now. So much was happening that he didn't understand, that he didn't know how to feel about. There was this overwhelming feeling bubbling up in his stomach that was leaving him anxious. Usually Itachi was a very calm and collective personality, but there is just something going on right now that is making him too anxious to be able to hide it very well. It's not something that he's having an easy time trying to reign in.

"Not sure," Kisame says, rolling his shoulders back.

"Something is definitely off," Sasori says, dragging the heavy puppet he's inside of across the sloppy, wet mud. "Pein is acting very suspicious."

"Conquerors," Kakuzu says, glaring ahead of them. "And they aren't just here to conquer Ame?"

"How did he know that?" Kisame asks, glancing over Sasori's head, easily to the man in the lead, the oldest of them.

"No clue," Kakuzu says slowly.

"It was that jutsu," Itachi says. They exit the rice patty field, beyond the rain, just in time for Ame to be lit up behind them. All for men spin around to see Ame crumbling to the ground. Not one, not two, not three, but four of those giant air machines, like the one crushed by Pein, hover over Ame, dropping bombs down on Ame, relentlessly.

All four of them just stood there, watching in horror and disbelief.

Itachi feels a pinch on his hand. He looks down to see The ring on his hand shivering madly before exploding into tiny pieces and falling to the mud. They just stood there, watching as Ame is turned to rumble without moving. Itachi, for one, was in complete shock. He didn't really know Pein, and it wasn't about the Akatsuki and where they were going to go from there, it was about the fact that he was watching an entire village being razed.

"Is... Pein dead?" Kisame asks, rubbing his hand, tiny eyes blown as wide as they can. "Shit."

"Yes." Itachi took a small step closer, feeling compelled to go tot heir rescue when someone wraps their hand around his wrist, holding him in place. Itachi didn't even turn to see who it was that did that.

Itachi turns sharply, recognizing the voice. Madara walks over to them slowly, like a cat, something in his hand. Zetsu stands off at the side, a foot away, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Madara," Itachi says, red eye wide.

"Madara?" Kisame and Kakuzu say at the same time, eyes wide.

"Pein is dead," Madara says, rolling the two small, orbs in his hand around a bit before they spin away into nothing. "I had to practically rip the Rinnegan from his head. Pein was just a body, but it's gone. Nagato would never survive now that Konan is dead too. I just sped up the process."

"That was you?" Itachi asks, looking over at the bombardment of Ame to see that it's finally slowed down.

Madara shakes his head. "No, that," he nods toward Ame, "wasn't me. I'm not sure who those people are. But we will have to gather the rest of the Akatsuki. There has been a change of plans."

Itachi doesn't respond. He turns his eyes back toward Ame, thinking, lost in the idea of how many people were now dead because of these strange people.

"Come on, Itachi," Kisame says, tugging at his wrist, having been the one to stop him earlier. "Let's go."

Having no where else to go, and knowing that answers may lie with Madara, Itachi followed after the black haired man, hands curling into fists.

 

Something is growling loudly.

Itachi groans, feeling as if his head was on fire. His vision was doubled and spinning and he feels like he's going to throw up. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, trying to calm the pain in his head and the insanity that's going on with his eyes. He shakes his head, and while it hurts, it helps clear up his vision a bit. Itachi looks down to see that he's just in a pair of simple white... shorts? Underwear? They were form fitting, but a bit longer than regular boxers.

How did he get here? What happened?

The last thing Itachi remembers was going to the next town over, going to a small shop just for a bit stop so that Madara could tell them what was what, when Kisame had cut in, curious, asking Itachi why those men suddenly attacked Ame, of all places! It took Itachi a moment of consideration before he said, really without thinking, "Maybe they were tracking their guys."

There was split second where Itachi and Kisame stared at one another, before Itachi realized that he was still in possession of the scroll in which those men were being held, right as something rolled into the room at their feet. It went off, blinding them first, before another one sent a pulse through the building which Itachi blacked out for.

So, they kidnapped him?

Itachi hears the growling again, this time accompanied by a strange crunching and wet noise. Itachi turns his attention to a cage next to him. Like his own, it had ten foot tall bars that were a glowing yellow color. It was about seven by ten feet in size, like his. But thankfully unlike his, there was some kind of large, hairy creature chewing on what looks to be human bones, crunching them in it's massive jaws.

Itachi blinks very slowly, deciding that his vision was as clear as it was going to get with this massive headache behind his forehead throbbing in tandem with his heart beat. Whatever this hairy monstrosity was, it wasn't something Itachi had ever seen before.

Itachi stands up slowly, body aching from sitting on the cold, hard metal floor for however long he's been out before walking over to the edge of the cage, studying the yellow energy coursing through it. His sharingan couldn't tell him what it was, which was a bit alarming, but he knew that if he touched it, it would bite back hard.

He hears the sound of metal clanking against metal and around the corner one of the men in armor appears, he stops in front of Itachi's cage and looks in at him, tilting his head.

The man says something, in a language Itachi didn't understand, his voice raspy and strange to Itachi's ear, shifting his strange musket toward Itachi in a thinly veiled threat of violence.

Itachi stares at the musket for a moment before looking up into the dark space where the man's eyes were hidden, and he casts a genjutsu. The man jerks hard, fighting back almost immediately, which was surprising but Itachi gain enough control to trick the man into shooting his door lock, making the entire cage sputter before the yellow light goes out. Itachi swings the door open and attacks.

Itachi wrestles the small musket from the man before brining it to a small weak point in the armor before pulling the trigger, as he had seen the men do many times before. A shot went off and the man let out a yell of pain. Itachi pulled the trigger again and the next one silenced the man. Itachi looks down at the musket, disgusted with it, before he dropped it at his feet before scrounging around on the man's person, finding one of their swords. That he takes along with the orbs that he originally disregarded.

They kind of looked like smoke bombs, but they were more than that, it seems.

Knowing he had to be sneaky about it, Itachi began to systematically clean up the strange place he was in. Every man that he came across in that strange armor he assassinated. He put all of his ANBU training to good use and began cleaning up the place until he made it to this room with all of these strange blue tanks. There was two sides, one side with a bunch of tanks and the other, on the other side of the room, was filled with large... rectangular panels? Itachi couldn't really get a good look at them before something moving caught his attention.

A robot makes it's way over to him, beeping at him. It had a glowing light on it's face and it hovered off the ground without any legs, but dozens of arms.

"What?" Itachi asks wearily, not sensing any danger from the strange machine.

It makes more beeping noises before a light shines from it's blue eye and scans his body. Itachi steps back, worried it'll strike out against him, before it whirls, displeased. A compartment on it's chest opens up and cup with a small tablet and a cup of what appeared to be water appears. It floats closer and offers it to him. Itachi stares at it for a moment in debate. He didn't know what it was but there was something in the back of his mind that urged him to take it. He needed to take it.

So he did, cautiously. He sniffed the substance. Water. It had no fragrance. And he took the single pill, waiting a moment to see if he would start feeling sick or as if he was poisoned, but in fact, almost immediately he began to feel better. His headache had been bothering him for a while and even though he was able to ignore it, at least he was able to finally rid himself of it.

"Medicine," Itachi says to the machine. "Are you like a doctor?"

The machine beeps and clicks at him.

"It is," a voice behind him says. Itachi spins around, blade swinging to see the spines around Zetsu's head close up tight to protect him from the blade. Thankfully Itachi caught himself before hitting his Akatsuki ally.

"Zetsu!" Itachi says, surprised. "Where are we? What's going on?"

"You and the rest of the Akatsuki were kidnapped by those same men that destroyed Ame," Zetsu says, the spine spreading apart again so that they can speak. "How do you feel, Itachi? That machine is the doctor of this place."

"I'm fine," the sixteen year old says dismissively. "Where are we? Where is the others?"

"Not here," Zetsu says. "I only boarded this ship because it was where Obito was. It seems like they were able to block out his Kamui abilities, that he was too dazed to be able to use them, but they were conducting experiments on him. Imagine their surprise when pieces of him started growing back. They thought he was a monster and so they chopped him up and sent him tot he incinerator, I think."

Itachi stares at Zetsu blankly. "Who? What? Who's Obito? What's Kamui? How was this person growing back pieces of himself?"

Zetsu looks around for a moment, as if the answers to Itachi's questions were floating in the air around his head, before looking over at Itachi. "Huh, I suppose it doesn't even matter, at this point. But, good news, I managed to save Master Madara's Rinnegan eyes." He holds up what was without a doubt an eye, ringed, and a carbon copy of Pein's eye.

"Rinnegan?" Itachi asks, staring down at the eye in confusion. Then, he looks up at Zetsu. "Wait, what about Madara?"

"Huh," Zetsu says. "I can't imagine he'll be too pleased about this. If we can even figure out how to get home..?" He shakes his head. "For now, Itachi, I need something from you that only you can help me with."

Itachi stares at the white, black and green plant-like man, mistrusting. "What?"

"I managed to fuse the two eyes together, but I don't have anywhere to put them safely," Zetsu says. "I'll need you to hold onto them for me, and Master Madara, for the time being."

"What?" Itachi stares at the other Akatsuki member in confusion.

There is a beeping noise behind him and something sharp sticks Itachi in the side. Itachi turns toward the machine as it pulls a needle out and floats away. Itachi's world sways.

"What are you doing?" Itachi asks, stumbling a bit. He grabs onto the nearby table, which is surprisingly tall and empty, and metallic. Like an operating table. Had it always been there? Itachi's body was going numb.

"I am doing nothing," Zetsu says. "Obito has known for a while that you are sick. That machine must have been able to see it when it scanned you. I think it's going to fix you now, but while it does, I'm going to have you hold onto Master Madara's eye for me." Zetsu helps pull Itachi onto the table, despite the young boy's sloppy attempts at pushing him away.

Once Itachi is laying on the table, staring up at the bright light overhead, feeling drowsy, Zetsu hovers over him, using one hand to hold up his left eyelid, and then using the other to put the eye against his own.

"Don't worry, Itachi," Zetsu says. "I will protect you if any more of your captors come. But I think you did a good job cleaning up. I don't think there is many left. It shouldn't be hard to dispatch them. Once you are all better we will find a way to get home."

"Where are we..?" Itachi slurs, eyes rolling into the back of his head.

"We... are not on Gaia anymore," Zetsu says.

Everything blacks out.


	2. Escape

In the haze of the blackness Itachi floated through, he saw Zetsu hovering over him, but there was something off about him. It was almost as if he was missing something. Like the entire black half of his head was gone, but he was still complete in a way. He holds his hands into Itachi's view, wrapping his right hand around his pointer finger on his left hand he gives it a good yank and pulling it off of his hand. But there is no blood or anything. He holds the finger up and looks into Itachi's eyes.

"I am made up of Hashirama Senju's cells," the white Zetsu says, holding the finger in Itachi's field of vision. "With this, it will increase your healing for a time being, if it isn't properly absorbed into your body. If the cells fuse in you as they have in Master Madara and Obito, then you will be able to use wood style too." He smiles a razor-toothed smile. "Well, in theory. But we will cross that bridge when we get there."

His words were pretty clear, but they weren't really computing in Itachi's head. He was too doped up to be able to really think about whatever this strange purely white version of Zetsu was saying.

Itachi felt numb and when he foolishly looked down at his chest, he could see that he was cut open. This machine was performing actual surgery on him right now, with absolutely no help whatsoever. This was the strangest, and probably scariest, thing that could be happening to him right now. Itachi wanted to panic, but couldn't, which was probably for the best since the machine was performing surgery on him!

Then, Itachi watches in horror and confusion as Zetsu reaches into his stomach and places the finger in there before pulling his hand out, a nub already regenerating in the place of the removed finger. Seeing the look on his face, Zetsu smiles, "Don't worry, Itachi, I am made up of nature energy. This won't hurt you. I promise."

The machine returns, looks down at him, then brings out another needle, pricking him in the arm before everything goes black again.

Itachi wakes up what feels like minutes later expecting to feel like he was hit by the super engorged ego of the Uchiha en mass, but is pleasantly surprised that there is only a minor ache in his chest and head, that's it. Itachi notices right away that his left eye is completely wrapped up. He sits up slowly, touching the stark white bandages around his eye, feeling like his eye was still there as he looks around even if he couldn't see before he remembered what Zetsu was saying to him. He was holding onto the eye for Madara... in his own head?

The thought made Itachi a bit sick.

Itachi reaches down and touches his chest, it's tender to the touch, but there is only a slight discoloration down the center of his breast plate but other than that, he feels fine. Itachi sits up slowly to see the machine hovering over him, scanning him again before making a positive chime then it floats over to the corner and stops moving.

Itachi sits up slowly, gingerly poking at his chest, feeling a bit sore before he looks around the room to see that he's alone other than the doctor machine now floating passively in the corner.

"Zetsu?" Itachi calls out slowly, trying to get used to the blind spot on the left side of his head, not used to the bandage obscuring half of his vision. As disoriented and tender as he felt, Itachi couldn't deny that he hasn't felt this good in a long time. He knew he was sick, and while he didn't care at the time, it was becoming unbearable, but now that contestant throbbing pain in his chest and stomach is gone. He feels like he could run a marathon and then fight every single ninja on the planet.

Itachi frowns, recalling what Zetsu said before he passed out. They weren't on Gaia anymore? That's what he said, wasn't it? What does that even mean? How could they not be on Gaia anymore? Itachi, being a genjutsu specialist by nature and preference, had a very strong and active imagination and yet Zetsu's words were very trying on what Itachi was able to believe. It was so completely preposterous.

Itachi had to speak to Zetsu and get the green, black and white man to explain what he meant.

Itachi looks around, spotting a cabinet near the door that he came in through. It was partially translucent and there looked to be black cloth folded up in there. The young Uchiha stands up, testing his balance for a moment to see that he was oriented well after having a few moments to collect himself, before walking over and opening the cabinet. He pulls out what appears to be a shirt and pants. The shirt is small but appears to stretch well. It wasn't what he was used to but at least it was better than what he was wearing now. The pants, though, were nice and loose.

Like, Itachi had to tie the pants as tight as they would go to fit around his slim waist. Even thought Itachi was a sixteen year old boy he wasn't built very big like most of the men here. Er, all of the men. Itachi actually hasn't seen a woman since these people showed up. All so far have been men.

The shirt was pressed tight to every contour of his chest though, which made him a bit uncomfortable, like he was wearing extra skin on top of his own, but it was still better than nothing. His cousin, Shisui, would have had a hoot over Itachi's modesty. Itachi just wasn't the type of person that liked to show off his body, and while he didn't much care if people saw him and wouldn't go out of his way to hide himself, he also wasn't going to just willingly walk around without any clothes on, either.

Itachi grabs the sword off the ground where it had fallen when he was drugged and heads out of the room. He walks down the hallway, back on alert for any more of those strange armored men but as he wondered the halls aimlessly, he had yet to see another one until he reaches a room with all sorts of blinking, clicking devices with flashing lights and a large window on the other side of the room that is a starburst of blue and white lined lights that go from directly in front of them all the way to the sides, making it look like they were soaring. It was beautifully hypnotizing.

"Welcome back, Itachi," Zetsu says, walking around a corner that leads to the next part of the place they are in.

"Zetsu," Itachi asks, narrowing his eyes dangerously. "What in the world is going on? Where are we? What's happening?"

"You've been abducted," he says, back to being the two halves together. "They took you and a bunch of others captive and flew away from Gaia. It was by luck that I was able to sneak onboard. I know not where we are going, though I know we probably don't have a lot of time left. You've been unconscious for three hours. I cleaned up the rest of this place. There is no more active hostiles here. Well, other than the other shinobi, but most are still sleeping."

"How many people are here?" Itachi asks, deciding that now would not be the time to be angry about what he did to Itachi's left eye. For now he had to focus on figuring out what was going on and how he was going to get home. Which is a lot further away than it usually is and doesn't really mean a specific place, like Konoha, but of a planet itself - which was nuts.

"Not many. About two dozen shinobi," Zetsu says, shrugging.

"Who are these people? I don't understand what they are speaking," Itachi says, still trying to get some kind of bearing. He's never felt quite this lost in his entire life.

"That's understandable, they are from an entirely different planet than us," Zetsu says nonchalantly. "I believe they are speaking their own language."

"I understand that," Itachi says. "Kind of," he admits. "But what are we going to do now?"

Zetsu looks out over the starburst of blue and white lights flying by them for a moment, as if he didn't know for certain how to answer that, before he looks back over at Itachi. "That is part of the reason I gave you Master Madara's eyes. His Rinnegan has the ability to pull the soul of another living being from their body and have access to their memories. Through that, I believe you will be able to learn about your captures, their language, where they come from and where we are going."

Itachi recalls when Pein had touched the man's head, pulling that blue energy from his body and into his own. That's when he said that the people that was attacking them were conquerors. Could that have been what he had seen? That they were going to try - and succeed - to kidnap... humans?

"So this eye will help me learn what is going on?" Itachi asks slowly, reaching up to touch the foreign appendage in his eye socket.

Zetsu walks up to him, lifting the bandages around his eye for a moment before settling it back into place. "Not yet. The eye hasn't settled in your body."

Itachi shakes his head, his vision blurry and spotty from just the moments that the eye was freed. "What is the point of giving me this eye if I can't even use it?" Itachi asks, remaining eye narrowed at the plant-like man.

"You will be able to use it soon," Zetsu says, shrugging his shoulders as if he didn't see where the annoyance in the teen stemmed from.

"Fine," Itachi says, realizing that arguing his point would get him nowhere, "who else is here? We will have to pool all of our resources together, which means that we are going to have to talk with the other ninja here and figure a way out of this mess."

Zetsu nods. "Very well. I can take you to them. There isn't many of note, but there is a handful that may be beneficial. While you were recovering, I've been checking out this place in great detail. So I know my way around."

Itachi nods once, thankful that he had the foresight to at least do that. "Alright, lead the way."

 

"Hello," Itachi says, staring into the cage of one of the tallest men he has ever seen. He has simple, dark brown hair with large, caramel colored eyes, that rise up to Itachi from where he sits in the center of the cage, being sure not to touch any of the glowing yellow bars with his long limbs. For as big as he is, even folded up neatly on the ground, it was amazing how small he could make himself.

"An Uchiha," the man says, staring at Itachi before standing up, easily towering over the black haired boy. "Are you here to torture me?"

Itachi shakes his head. "No. I am a captive, just as you are."

"Yet you are on the other side of the cage," the man says, stepping closer, his voice, belying his mistrust.

"I'll let you out," Itachi says, "I need your help."

The man stares down at Itachi for a moment before nodding and looking down at the door, deciding to trust him for the time being. Itachi stares at the strange device before him, not really understanding how to open the door. It's not in his nature, but when the man in the armor shot the lock, it opened, so damage must work. He'll figure out the ins and outs in time, but for now they just need to worry about getting home.

Itachi closes his hand into a fist, bracing for impact before punching the metal hard. There was some kind of glass panel over top and it shatters turning the large red light green and the yellow energy disappears.

Itachi steps back as the man pushes the door open and steps out, standing up at his full height, rolling his shoulders back. He takes a moment to stretch out his long limbs, cracking the joints that were forced to stay in one place lest he get a nasty burn.

"I am Itachi Uchiha," Itachi says.

The man nods slowly. "I am Han from Iwa."

"The Steam Giant," Zetsu says, stepping out next to Itachi and staring up at Han as if he was a delicious morsel for a ravenous animal. "One of the very few men to go up against the Yellow Flash and survive."

Han looks down at Zetsu, taking in his strange appearance for a moment before looking over at Itachi. "Yes," he says slowly. "That is what I am known for. And you are known for murdering your entire family."

Itachi doesn't know what to say to that. He couldn't very well deny it, since it was true. And he has had people try and taunt him about the death of his family and it was just something that he expected to happen, so it usually didn't bother him all that much, but at this moment, it was different. It wasn't someone trying to get a rise out of him. It wasn't someone trying to hurt his feeling or distract him.

It was all stated matter-of-factly. And Itachi knew he had to tread carefully. He was a former Leaf Ninja while Han was an Iwa Ninja. They were natural born enemies to begin with. On top of the fact that the Akatsuki's ultimate goal, as Zetsu informed him on their way down to see Han, was to capture the Jinchuuriki and the Bijuu they have housed inside of them. Now, they haven't started their hunt for them yet, which is a good thing, because Han was the Five-Tail's Jinchuuriki.

If Itachi recalled correctly, that was the Dolphin-Horse.

Regardless, Itachi knew that this man wasn't someone that he wanted to fight with, especially if he battled the Fourth Hokage and not only survive, but looks pretty good.

"That is true," Itachi says slowly, unable to deny it, "but in the predicament that we are in, that can't matter right now."

Han nods in agreement. "Yes, we must get out of here and save whomever is still here."

Itachi turns to Zetsu. "Alright, who's next?"

Zetsu nods, turning and heading down the hall. "Next we have someone that is as peculiar as Han." They step around the corner to see a young girl staring up at them.

She had to be about Sasuke's age with mint green hair and large orange eyes. She had to be eleven or twelve years old. She stands up as they approach, her orange eyes locked on Han, as if trying to see something that she wasn't sure was there. She had the same strange skin tight shorts on that the rest of them do, but with a thick white band around her chest.

"You..." she says slowly, orange eyes widening. "You are like me!"

Han tilts his head slowly before nodding. "Yes, we are the same..."

Another Jinchuuriki.

She smiles happily, as if completely oblivious to what was going on around her. "Wow! It's nice to meet you! I've never met someone else like me before! I have so many questions!"

Han nods slowly. "I will answer what I can, but not now. We have to get out of this strange place."

"Oh," the girl says. "Right." She stands up. "Get me out of here, would you, big guy?"

Han looks down at the panel on the girl's cage, similar to the one that was on his own, remembering Itachi's action, and mimics it. He bashes his fist into the panel and the yellow light fizzles out.

The girl kicks the door open and stares up at Han with wide, innocent orange eyes. "I'm Fuu!"

"Han," Han says, then gives Itachi a side glance.

"Itachi," Itachi says, then gestures toward Zetsu, "and that's Zetsu."

"Freaky!" Fuu says, squinting at Zetsu before moving away, as if weary of the plant man. She steps closer to Han, obviously showing that she is more trusting to the older man than anyone else.

"Let's make this quick," Itachi says, turning to Zetsu. "We need to get everyone some clothes." Han hums in agreement. But alas, they move on. The next is a woman that Itachi didn't know, but Han did.

He called her Mabui. She was the assistant of Raikage. She knew Han and was very receptive of Fu, but was extremely weary of Itachi and Zetsu, making sure to keep them where she could see them. But unlike the other female of their group, Mabui remained relatively quiet and watchful, whereas Fuu was talkative and oblivious.

And then after that, there was someone that Itachi knew he would have to see again, but definitely hoped it wasn't going to be this soon. Not in this situation either. No, actually, that's not right. In some ways, it actually relieved Itachi to see this person again. Even though he didn't expect a warm welcome, the childish part of him was happy to see this older man who he knew would have a level in all situations there with him now.

"Kakashi," Itachi says softly, staring down at the white haired man sitting in the center of the cage, face obscured by his hand.

Kakashi lets out a long winded sigh, standing up slowly before turning completely to look down at Itachi with a half lidded black eye. His sharingan eye is closed tightly. This is the first time Itachi has ever seen his one time ANBU Captain's face. The man was handsome with a beauty mark on the corner of his mouth. Which was frowning down at him.

"Itachi," Kakashi says coldly, staring down at him. "What is going on?" His eye flickers over to the other people around the black haired boy. "Friends of yours?"

"I am Han of Iwa," Han says.

"Mabui of Kumo."

"I'm Fuu! Oh, from Taki!"

Kakashi's eyebrows raise, red eye opening as he scans the crowd. "It's... a pleasure..." he says slowly, as if he wasn't expecting them to actually respond to him. "I am Kakashi Hatake of Konoha."

"Kakashi Hatake," Han says, light brown eyes honing in on Kakashi's face. "I knew your master. I had the privilege of facing Minato in battle once during the war. I was sorry to hear that he had passed."

Kakashi blinks in surprise before bowing his head a bit. "Thank you, Han. I appreciate it. I miss him." Itachi could understand Kakashi's surprise. Iwa hated the Fourth Hokage. It was a bit strange to hear one openly admit their condolences for his passing. Han didn't appear to be deceiving them, or speaking out of formality, but out of a legitimate form of remorse.

"You're from Konoha?" Fuu asks, orange eyes blown wide. She lifts off the ground as wings - like a bug's wings - sprout out of her back. "I'm from Taki! We're allies! Here, let me get you out of there!" She brings her leg up and strikes the panel she saw Han strike on Mabui's cage, setting Kakashi free.

Kakashi looks at doorway out of the cage and the yellow light dies out, tentatively touching the metal before pushing the door open and stepping out, looking at the floating girl. "Thank you, Fuu. Nice... wings."

Fuu grins broadly. "Thanks! I borrow it from the Seven Tails."

Kakashi's eyes widen at the admittance. "You hold the Seven Tails?"

Fuu nods, while Han sighs. Itachi can understand that it must be a strange and exciting to be able to admit such a big secret in front of people who, honestly, can't give a shit right now, must feel like a blessing. Fuu is young and must not really realize what she is admitting, but if Itachi is understanding this all correctly, Kakashi isn't someone who would use that against the little girl, there is comradarie with Han, Mabui - if she really is the assistant of the Raikage - would have a closer relationship with Killer B, who is said to be a Jinchuuriki too. Zetsu isn't a real person, what he thinks and feels means nothing. He's just enough of a wallflower to disappear from their foreword thoughts.

Which is probably why he's such a good spy.

"We should start gathering up clothes," Itachi says. Kakashi looks over at him, lips parting about to ask something, before deciding that it can wait.

"Not yet," Zetsu says. "Everyone else are just peons, but there is one more person that needs your attention, Itachi."

"You shouldn't say that," Mabui says flatly, staring at Zetsu mistrustfully.

"What does that mean?" Fuu asks, looking up at Han.

"Peons?" Han asks, looking down at the hovering girl. She nods. "People who aren't important. They aren't part of the upper brass. The people who matter. It's an insult."

Fuu frowns, looking over at Zetsu and sticking her tongue out at him.

"Fine," Itachi says, shaking his head. "Who is it? Someone I know?"

Zetsu shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. But you are probably one of the few people who can stop him."

Itachi stares at him. "No. If he is someone that needs to be 'stopped' then we have no need for him. Leave him where he is, get everyone else out."

"That won't fly well," Zetsu says. "His name is Hidan and he worships some god that has bestowed upon him immortality. We will need him to be able to help get everyone out of this situation. He's easily influenced, as if he is very dumb. That makes him very dangerous. It's best to have him on your side, then against you."

Itachi frowns at that, not sure he believed that, but sighs. "Fine. We will need all the help we can get. I will go see him, you take the others to free everyone else. This is taking too long. We will meet at the head of this place in twenty minutes."

"Okay," Zetsu says.

"Wait," Kakashi says, stepping closer. "I'm going with you."

Itachi sighs, looking over at the silver haired man. "Kakashi, there is no need for that. We have more pressing matters than our past."

Kakashi stares back at him, eyes narrowed and mistrusting. "Good, so we will have nothing to distract us while we go and meet this 'Hidan' and see if he can be pacified."

Itachi sighs again, feeling the pressure of time weighing down on them. "Very well. Where to, Zetsu?"

 

Hidan was... something. Itachi is certain that he and Kakashi took too long just staring at him in contemplation as the man in question yipped and hollered like a hellion. Itachi could only compliment how good his foresight was when dealing with the glowing yellow bars on their cages after the fifth time watching Hidan zap the shit out of himself.

Itachi figured that he would learn after the fifth time, but he just curses up a storm and tries to jump at it again. They didn't really need Zetsu to give them detailed directions, as soon as they got twenty feet of the albino, they could see his loud cursing and the loud, alarming zaps of the slightly older man trying to break from his cell.

It's now, after ten minutes of them just staring at the violet eyed man, that he finally noticed them.

"Hey!" The man, Hidan, turns to them. "Hey, assholes! You gonna get me out of here, or are you just gonna watch?"

"I don't think it's wise we let him out," Kakashi says, crossing his arms over his toned, bare chest. Itachi, honestly, couldn't agree more, but now wasn't the time to be picky. They honestly needed all the help they could get. They were facing unknown enemies and while it didn't seem to be very smart, unfortunately they didn't have many other plausible choices.

"Perhaps not," Itachi agrees.

"Hey," Hidan snaps. "Fuck both of you! Get me the hell out of here!"

"Listen, Hidan," Itachi says, stepping closer tot he cell, "we are in a predicament that we need all hands on deck for. We all need to work together to get out of this alive, but I hear that you are a loose cannon. We can't afford any wild cards, you are either with us or left behind, simple as that."

Hidan glares at them, obviously not very happy about the ultimatum but Itachi wasn't going to offer anything else. Hidan needed to play nice and listen to them or he wasn't going to have any use for him.

"Listen," Itachi steps closer to the albino man still trapped in his cage, "we have all been kidnapped from Gaia. These people... these stranger aliens, come from beyond the stars and they are taking us somewhere. I haven't the slightest idea where or why, but I am definitely not going to sit around and wait to find out. We have to orient ourselves and figure out what to do next. Are you capable of that?"

Hidan curls his lip, annoyed. "I can play nice. Just get me the hell out of here!" He curls his charred hands into angry fists, oblivious to his pain, if he even had any. Itachi isn't so certain that he would be as calm, especially with how black Hidan's palms are because of the burns.

"Very well," Itachi says slowly, turning to look over at Kakashi, who looks completely torn, but nods. Itachi busts the panel and the light sputters out.

Hidan's angry snarl vanishes and a smooth smile appears, making his face twenty times more handsome. "Alright. I'll play. What are we doing?"

"We are going to meet up with everyone else," Itachi says, "but first, lets grab some change of clothes for everyone too."

 

There was a legitimate hosh-posh of people gathered together at the front of the place they are at. Itachi still wasn't certain what to call where they were, but it didn't really matter right now. Ninja from all walks of life were there, piled into the large room - as Zetsu said about two dozen, looking around mistrustfully and worriedly. But they were also sliding in close to those that were in the same village as them.

Which was awkward for the single Suna ninja, who didn't appear to know where to go, even though Konaha was their allies, he didn't appear to recognize any of them and was forced to hang out awkwardly in the corner, looking around as if he was misplaced.

They, again, waste time talking about what they know was going on, unfortunately no one really knew much.

"I have an idea," Zetsu says, his calm voice cutting through the uneasy murmuring as everyone slithers into their tight shirts and baggy pants. Mabui working efficiently on Fuu, being the youngest and smallest of them, and her pants, seeing as Itachi's barely fits him, Fuu's is basically falling off. Mabui is trying to pin it more securely into place.

"What's your idea?" Mabui asks, half glancing around Fuu's hips.

"Han," Zetsu turns toward the tallest man in the room, "are you able to communicate with your bijuu?"

The mention of a tailed beast made the room go dead silent.

Han shifts slowly, both mistrusting and uncomfortable. "Yes," he says after a moment of silence. "I can speak with the Five Tails."

"The Five Tails may be able to absorb the essence of one of these people and allow you to at least be able to understand their language and some, if not all, of his memories," Zetsu says.

Han adopts a far away look that Itachi could immediately tell that he was commuting with the Five Tailed Dolphin-Horse, which was honestly pretty cool. In any other situation, Itachi would be enraptured, wanting to know what it was saying, what it was like. But he kept his honest curiosity to himself. Now was not the time for it.

"Alright," Han says, blinking back into the present. "The Five Tail's says that he can do it. He just needs someone."

Zetsu appears visibly pleased. "Excellent. I left a few of your captors alive. Let me retrieve one. He starts to walk away, pausing only to look at a Kumo ninja and a Tani ninja, making a gesture for them to follow, which they do after a moment of hesitation.

As soon as they are exit the room down the other hallway that Zetsu originally entered through when Itachi first showed up here.

The starburst of white and blue lights blast away and everything slowly down as they begin to peacefully drift.

"What's going on?" One of the Kiri ninja's asks. "Where are we?"

Itachi steps close to the window, seeing what appears to be a giant metal building floating out in space with dozens of those large floating - but of various shapes and sizes - floating around it.

"I... don't know..." Itachi admits.

"It looks like some kind of... base of some sort," Kakashi says, stepping up beside him, eyes narrowed. "Which isn't good. If they have some way of coming on board this... machine, then we are done for. I'm not sure how we will be able to get out of this."

"Then we best move quick," Han says as Zetsu comes back in. The Kumo and Tani ninja follow after, carrying one of the strange men, stripped of his armor. He is struggling against them, but now Itachi understands why Zetsu grabbed them. Both are pretty big men, even bigger than Kakashi and are physically more capable of keeping the man under control.

He spits out something in a language that Itachi didn't understand.

"We don't have time," Mabui says, stepping up next to Han. "If you can do something, please do it now."

"She's right," Kakashi says, pushing himself away from the window.

Han walks over to them and closes his eyes, lips moving slightly but no noise comes out. His eyes flutter closed for a moment before a bright red light appears around him. It wasn't like regular chakra, it was red and bubbly with a tail appearing off of his butt. Just a single one. He reaches out and places his hand onto the man's head, closing his eyes and ignoring the man's yelling. It was senseless garble anyway to them.

The red chakra around Han flows out of him and into the man, engulfing his entire body. The man's yelling - what Itachi could only assume was probably profanities - turns into screams of anguish and fear before it turns gurgled and the man basically melts before Itachi's very eyes. That is what demonic chakra does to the human body? That was insane.

The red chakra, as if it was it's own living entity flows into Han's body, making him shiver and tremble, as if in pain before he gives himself a hard shake, creases forming between his eyes.

"Han..." one of the Iwa ninjas says slowly. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Han says, his voice strained. "That was... not pleasant." Itachi's willing to bet not.

"Did it work?" Zetsu asks, curiously.

"Yes..." Han says, rubbing at his temples. "For the most part. I understand a bit more. These men, they call themselves... Mandalorians. They are from a race of being very similar to humans, but are a lot like shinobi. They are very warlike. They came to our planet to conquer the warriors of our planet."

"Us," a different Kumo ninja says.

Han nods. "We weren't the only ones they kidnapped. Apparently they went to different planets and take the most intelligent life and... bring them somewhere. It's not very clear. The man wasn't very high up on the chain of command. But apparently they were bringing us here, to one of their bases before we were moved somewhere..." his eyebrows pull together tighter. "Somewhere beyond... the outter rim? I'm not sure what that means."

"Mandalorians..." Itachi says softly, eyes narrowing. It was nice to finally have a name to the strange men in armor.

"Hey," Hidan says, from where he was at in the corner of the room next tot he windows. He points down at the clicking, flashing panels in front of them. "This light just started blinking like, a minute ago. Should we be concerned about that?"

Han looks at it, and quietly summons the knowledge of what it was before frowning. "It's the communications," he says.

"Shit," Kakashi says, stepping away and turning to Itachi. "Do you know where the armory is?"

Itachi blinks in surprise, wondering why he never thought of that. "Oh! No. I don't. Zetsu?"

"I do," Zetsu says after being prompted.

"We are going to have to suit up and arm ourselves," Kakashi says.

"I can making sealing scrolls," one of the Kiri ninja's says. "I feel like we are going to need everything we can get our hands on."

"Good," Kakashi says smoothly, then turns to Han. "Try and buy us some time."

Han walks over to one of the panels and plays around with the buttons for a moment. "This man didn't know much about how to get to certain places, but he did know the way to one of the planets and how to punch the coordinates into the... um, hyper drive."

"Okay," Itachi says, stepping forward. "Do that, but not yet. Everyone else needs to follow Zetsu and get geared up, double time." He looks over at the Kumo and Tani ninja that helped Zetsu out earlier. "How many of the Mandalorians did Zetsu still have alive?"

"Three," the Kumo ninja says.

"Alright," Itachi hands the black man his sword. "Kill them, we won't be needed them. We have to get out of here, the less chances that something could go wrong, the better." Itachi looks over at the Kiri ninja that offered to make the scrolls for them. "I haven't seen a lot of paper around here," Itachi admits, "but hopefully a lot of our stuff will be in the armory somewhere. Make as many sealing scrolls as you can. If we have to get stranded somewhere, we are going to need to be able to sell anything and everything in order to make it back home." Everyone nods.

"Let us move, then," Mabui says, walking over to Zetsu, a frown on her pretty face. "Please, lead the way."

Zetsu nods and leaves, everyone following after except for Itachi, Han, Kakashi and Hidan.

"Press it," Han says to Hidan, stepping back a bit from the panel after having messed with it for a moment. "I'm not sure how much longer they are going to wait and the ship needs time to set the route to the planet we are going to."

Hidan shrugs and hits the button, leaning against the wall as a man appears in front of Han. Kakashi grabs Itachi's arm and pulls him further away, just in case the man could actually see into the room. But the man wasn't really there. It was strange, he was in the same armor that all of the other Mandalorians were in, but his hand more decorative symbols on it. The man gives Han a once over and immediately doesn't look impressed.

The man says something, to which Han smoothly replies in this strange language. Han frowns, as if the language was hard on his tongue, which it sounded like. They share a brief conversation before the man says something and then disappears.

"What did he say?" Hidan asks, looking at Han lazily, as if not sensing the urgency in any of this.

"He asked why I was not in uniform," Han says. "He then asked why it took me so long to reply."

"And?" Kakashi says. "What did you say?"

"I was vague," Han says slowly. "Perhaps too vague. We have to hurry. He suspects something."

"Then get us to this planet, Han," Itachi says.

"And fucking quick!" Hidan says, pointing out the window. "Looks like the cavalry is on it's way." A bunch of the smaller machines start powering up and heading in their direction.

"Han!" Itachi says, as Han jumps back toward the panel, quickly pressing buttons when the other machines fired upon them, meeting with a barrier.

"The barrier is up," Han says, "which is good, but won't last long. But it will give us enough time to... yes, the coordinates are put in. We can jump now." He hesitates for a moment, glancing over at Itachi and Kakashi, as if waiting for something.

"Go, now!" Itachi and Kakashi shout at once as the small Mandalorian machines fly passed and a larger one turns towards them and opens fire, shaking their own large machine. Alarms started sounding with red lights flashing throughout the machine.

Han hits the button and the blue and white lights start to appear again, but not before there is a giant explosion and something is said throughout the machine. Han looks around for a moment before turning to the three other men in the room.

"We have engine failure. We will be able to make it through the jump but this is going to crash. We have to suit up and make it to the escape pods."

"What the hell is that?" Hidan asks, moving to Han's side.

"It doesn't matter," Kakashi snaps. "Let's just get out of here!"

With that, the four men raise down the hall, following Kakashi's keen sense of direction all the way to the armory, quickly throwing on the closest of the armor near them as they could as some form of protection and grabbing as many weapons as they could carry with them before the bulk follows Han all the way to the escape pods, which was just circular doors in the walls, that apparently had little metal boxes inside of them that would carry them to safety.

It felt like bullshit to Itachi, but he couldn't argue with Han's lame explanation, not knowing any better himself.

Han quickly set all of the pods to land on the planet below them once they escape... hyperspace? Before everyone piles into the pods. Hidan, Fuu, Kakashi, Mabui, Itachi, Zetsu and Han all squeeze into one pod together, having no time to really pick and choose. There is a jerk and the yelling throughout the... ship, Han called it, was basically telling them that they had to evacuate now, since they exited hyperspace.

The metal boxes close up, air pressure inside made Itachi's ears pop, before they were thrown in one direction. Then another, then another. Fuu is screaming in fear at the top of her lungs across from Itachi and he has just enough panic flowing through him to be completely silent but frozen, to see Mabui release her white knuckled grip on the harness around herself to grab onto Fuu's hand to try and offer her some kind of comfort even if her own face was lined with fear and uncertainty.

This wasn't what they were used to. It wasn't something any of them have ever done before. At this exact moment, all of them had to step out of the roles of shinobi that they have all been living their entire lives as, and into survivors. They were going to have to do anything and everything they could to survive. Even if that seemed like an impossible endeavor, especially with a bunch of strangers, if they somehow survived in these metal boxes and land on the planet's surface, then they would only have each other.

The box starts to shake and Itachi is sweating. He's not sure if the box was really getting as hot as he thought it was, or if he was just so scared beyond understanding.

"What the hell?" Hidan yells at nothing, barely being heard over Fuu's screaming. "Fucking shut up for a minute!"

Itachi squeezes his eyes shut, one still trapped beneath the wrapping, and saw the face of his little brother, as his stomach rose up into his throat. They hit something, hard, and then it was over. They had to of been falling for ten to fifteen minutes. It didn't feel like it, but Fuu's voice was practically gone once they finally landed. Itachi is thankful that he had neither eaten nor drank anything in probably days, because he's certain he would have thrown up or pissed himself at this point.

All of his limbs shook from being so tense.

"Is everyone alright?" Kakashi asks, letting out a deep breath as the door they climbed in through blasts open from a level that Han pulled.

"Yeah..." Fuu croaks, extracting herself from her seat and clinging to Mabui. The older woman, probably only seven years Itachi's senior, helps the girl out, accepting her weight, as if helping someone else, anchored her.

"Yes," Mabui says slowly.

"I'm fine..." Itachi chimes in.

"Good, let's get out of here," Kakashi says, jumping out of the box. Itachi quickly follows and is blasted by hot air. It makes him dizzy for a moment and painfully aware that he was tired, strung out, and hungry. He quickly shakes the feeling away to see... desert. Desert and dunes as far as the eye could see.

"Shit," Hidan groans. "What the hell is this place?"

"Welcome, everyone," Han says, squinting at the bright sunlight beating down at them, "to the planet of Tatooine."


	3. Found

It's hard to believe that months pass by in the blink of an eye. There was three pods that hit the ground of Tatooine and only one survived. One was eaten by a gigantic dragon. Not just any old dragon, but what Itachi later learned to be a Krayt Dragon. The pod landed right outside of where it made it's nest and it basically dislodged the pod from the ground and dragged it into it's cave and no one came out, as far as they know. The second pod got lodged into the sand, quick sand to be more precise, upside down and sank.

It was absolutely horrifying. Itachi and Mabui caught the tail end of it, as the top sank into the ground, disappearing beneath the golden waves.

Anchorhead was where they made refuge. They barely managed to find their way to the town before dying of dehydration. It was one of the few points in Itachi's life that he has been afraid of the next few hours.

But they finally made it there, got some food in their bellies after two days in the desert, and began to figure out what they were going to do. They needed money to get off of the planet that they were on, Tatooine. And there wasn't a lot of commercial flights to and from and being shinobi, they were mistrusting by nature of all of these strange people around them. So they did what they did best, they bounty hunted for the Exchange to make their way.

They honed their skills, made bank and learned about the planets, universe and all of it's people. They gobbled up knowledge like it was edible and picked up as many skills as they could. Once Itachi gained access to his new Rinnegan, Zetsu began the slow and tedious process of teaching Itachi how to use it. The eye alone somehow gave him a chakra and vitality boost - which was a little hard to pick up on considering that his health had been declining since he left Konoha only to have it fixed on the Mandalorian ship - so he was growing in strength so rapidly, it was hard to tell what came from the eye and what power had been hidden in him all along.

The vast sands of Tatooine was an interesting training ground for them, until they finally figured out how everything worked. Learning the language, at least for Itachi and Han, was relatively easy. But Mabui, Kakashi, Hidan, Fuu and Zetsu learned. Everyone learned to speak and read the language within the year and worked hard to pick up all kinds of different skills in order to help them find their way back home.

Itachi picked up tinkering on anything mechanical. Because he's a powerful genjutsu specialist, he's ability to use his brain and imagination has made it a very delectable pass time. There wasn't much on Tatooine to begin with, so they used their money to buy a piece of shit airship and spent the better part of the last few months fixing it up. Itachi has been reading up on and absorbing the memories of mechanics of all walks of life that come to Tatooine for all kinds of different nefarious reasons.

All his life Itachi hungered for knowledge and now that he is in an entirely new place that has pretty much nothing in common with Gaia, so there is a slew of new and interesting things out there just waiting to be learned, yet Itachi knows in the back of his mind that all of that meant next to nothing. Everything that he was learning was basically for naught because while he was no longer sick, Itachi knew that he would never live long enough to be able to put any of it to good use. There was no one for him to teach, no one for him to talk to or confide in.

No matter what he learned, the only person that Itachi really wanted to teach was his own brother. But Sasuke would never willingly learn from him, nor would he appreciate anything that Itachi had to teach him. Which Itachi didn't blame Sasuke for. How could he? It was Itachi's fault that Sasuke's life was going to be a mess forever.

Now Itachi is just going to have to work hard to return home and make sure his brother is ready to fight the Mandalorian, and anyone else that comes to their planet in search of a fight.

If Sasuke is still there.

Itachi has nightmares every night, watching his home burn. He doesn't know what his planet looks like from the outside so the planets always look a little different one way or another, but he can just feel the world dying. His home, along with all of the people that he has ever known, would all go up in flames with them. It was odd, in a way, watching a planet burn. Itachi's family has been infamous because of their fire nature - both in a shinobi sense and a personal one - and to watch a planet go up in flames was almost like a taunt.

Kakashi has been very professional. Itachi could always feel Kakashi's gaze on him and knew rightfully so, but Kakashi has yet to actually speak to Itachi about the questions Itachi knew was burning his old Captain and comrade. Kakashi knew as well as anyone that they all needed to work together in order to get home, especially since Itachi has picked up on the worlds the best through his memory snatching and has learned almost a dozen of alien languages and cultures just a year into their stay.

Itachi knew that he was the most valuable person with them at the moment. Everyone could speak galactic basic now with very little difficulty, but Itachi was the only one who knew more than two languages. Han being the other, knowing Mandalorian and galactic basic. There wasn't a person on Tatooine that Itachi couldn't speak to. He knew that he was a very important asset to the group, but that didn't stop them from being weary of him.

They were all from different villages but there was a core loyalty to the shinobi as a whole, because that was what they were, but Itachi was different. He forsaken his village and the code of the Shinobi. In the heart of the issue, all of them couldn't trust him. They had to offer a degree of understanding but it was always laced with caution.

As the months passed, it's been less and less noticeable, but Itachi can still feel the mistrust shimmering beneath the surface. They are starting to understand each other and have to rely on one another and trust is an unfortunate side affect of that. But it's very slow coming.

Itachi carefully crosses two circuits, pulling back a bit to look at the motherboard of the hyperdrive, making sure he didn't miss anything.

"How is it going?"

Itachi turns to look over his right shoulder so that his single black eye could stare at the messy gray haired man standing at the entrance way into the hyperdrive room.

"Kakashi," Itachi says quietly. "It's fine. It'll be space fairing soon enough. No threat of explosion, at least."

Kakashi nods slowly, strong, toned arms crossed over his chest. It's too hot to be wearing anything longer than short sleeves, or in Kakashi's case sleeveless, shirts, showing off his ANBU tattoo - not that anyone on Tatooine knew what it meant - but he held fast to pants, tying them up at the bottom with wrapping as similar to their shinoi attire as possible.

Itachi was dressed similar but with a short sleeve white shirt and pants wrapped up at the bottom, but the largest difference with him was after he activated his Rinnegan, he parted his hair differently so that it would cover his left eye, hiding the Rinnegan from other people's sight, but it could easily see through his thin hair, and about three months ago, while training out in the sand with Fu and Han, Itachi barely managed to avoid a devastating neck swipe by one of the natives: the Sand People.

It sliced Itachi's hair at an angle that Itachi just couldn't deal with anymore. His hair was too long and too dark to keep down anymore anyway in the hot desert, so Mabui was kind enough to help him cut it and make sure he's somewhat presentable. Now it's just long enough to briefly touch his collar bones. It reminds him of when he was younger, having hair that short, but he didn't dwell on it long.

"That's good," Kakashi says, voice even, "not dying in an explosion, I mean."

Itachi nods slowly, not sure why his one-time ally wanted from him. "Am I perhaps forgetting something, Kakashi?" Itachi asks. "Was there something you needed to speak to me about?"

Kakashi stares back at him with a single, half lidded black eye, the other wrapped up with white wrapping around his forehead. "You aren't forgetting anything, Itachi, I just figured with everyone out, you and I can finally have a conversation."

Itachi stares at him for a long moment before gesturing next to him. "Very well, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Kakashi walks into the room and lowers down next to Itachi. "Let's talk about the Uchiha."

"I don't want to talk about them," Itachi says, flatly. "Was there something else?"

"You don't want to talk about what happened? You don't want to tell me your side of the story?" Kakashi asks incredulously.

"I'm sure that you already know the story. I doubt there is more that I can say to add to it." Itachi returns his attention to the motherboard in front of him, tinkering with it as more of a distraction rather than having much else to do with it.

"I would have thought so too," Kakashi says, honestly, "but recently, I'm not so certain."

Itachi looks over at Kakashi, who was now on his left, using the back of his left hand to push aside the thin curtain of black hair over his Rinnegan eye to stare at him. Kakashi looks at Itachi, not even bothered by the sight of the purple optic.

"What does that mean?" Itachi asks flatly.

"I've been watching you for a long time, Itachi," Kakashi says.

"I know," Itachi says. "You aren't the only one. We've all been watching each other."

Kakashi shakes his head. "No, not just since we met up on the Madalorian ship. I've been watching you long before that. I was one of the ANBU that recommended you join ANBU. I have been watching you closely for many years. I couldn't believe that you killed your family when it happened, and listening to everyone talking about it, their anger and confusion, I may have fed into it, believing that maybe everything I ever thought and observed about you was wrong. This last year has been very eye-opening to me."

Itachi drops his hair, creating a thin, physical barrier between them. "You shouldn't keep digging for something that isn't there."

"I agree," Kakashi says flatly. "And I thought so too, but Han said something to me that I simply cannot ignore."

Han? Now that was a strange one. "And what is it that Han had to say?" Itachi asks, taking the cover for the motherboard and putting it back into place slowly.

"Han is very protective of Fu," Kakashi says. "She's a sweet girl who knows what it's like to be treated like a monster even though she isn't. He watches her like a hawk to make sure she's safe, but I remember, just a few months ago, walking into the ship and seeing you teaching her how to speak Twi'leki, because she was making a friend in the market and wanted to surprise her by speaking her language, Han said that he was comfortable leaving Fu to a gentle soul like you. He said he didn't have to worry about you with Fu because you wouldn't hurt her."

Itachi's eyebrow quirks, but he doesn't say anything.

"I thought it was crazy," Kakashi continues, not bothered by Itachi's silence. "I knew that you killed your entire family; men, women and children of all ages. I thought that he had forgotten about what you had done, and when I told him, he just looked me in the eye and said, 'I can't believe someone who can treat a demon girl so gently could kill a child. Espeically one of his own blood.' And the more I thought about it, the more it began to make sense. You haven't changed much since I first met you." Kakashi stands up.

"I don't know if you are guilty of killing the Uchiha or not, and while I care deeply, somehow, I don't think the answer is as simple as I once thought it was. I know you won't breath a word of anything that you don't want to, so I won't even bother asking, but know that I don't believe you. Well, anyway, good luck! I hope we can escape Tatooine soon, as fun as it's been, I'm ready to go." With that, Kakashi sticks his hands in his pockets and walks out of the small room.

Itachi sits there in silence, not knowing what to say, or even do. For some reason, his heart was pounding in his ears. Itachi brings a hand to his chest, knotting up his shirt a bit and forces himself to calm down.

Itachi spends a lot of time meditating. When he's not tinkering, he's meditating, since he can barely sleep without being wracked with nightmares. Itachi has a lot of memories and knowledge to sift through, trying to keep it all organized. He sends the memories of their lives away from his mind, he didn't need any of that, but he kept the knowledge close.

Everyone else's knowledge of the stars, trying to locate their home. The more he meditated, the more aggravated he became. He wasn't able to find Gaia, in any of their memories, merely because he doesn't know what it looks like. All of his educated guesses on how it would look, anything that came close to what he thought was already an established world, not like their own.

Itachi couldn't find their planet anywhere. No matter where he looked; memories, books - anything! - he couldn't find it. None of them could. The only ones that may have known was the Mandalorians, but they live beyond the Outer Rim. Rarely are they seen doing anything other than fighting or hunting. But for the last few years, they've disappeared beyond the Outer Rim.

Itachi simply couldn't find their planet. They will never be able to return home. Itachi just didn't know how to deal with it.

They all have their jobs now. Hidan goes out into the sands every day to bounty hunt and collect supplies. Han and Fu go out to train, since she is the youngest and least trained of them. Zetsu scowers the planet, looking for anything interesting for them to sell, salvage or keep in case they one day might need it. Kakashi and Mabui both trade off protecting their home while Itachi is inside repairing it.

"Itachi!" Fu sticks her mint green head into the cockpit of their ship that he has taken up as his own home. "Hey, it's time to eat!"

Itachi, who was sitting on the floor behind the pilot's seat, meditating in the quiet darkness. He opens his eyes and looks up at her, feeling exhausted from months without proper sleep. "I'm not hungry, Fu," Itachi says softly, letting his eyes slip closed again. "Eat without me." There is a moment of silence before Fu walks into the room and stoops down on her hunches in front of Itachi. The dark haired young man sighs, opening his eyes again to look at the Seven Tails Jinchuriki. "Yes, Fu?"

"Are you still trying to find home?" Fu asks.

"Yes," Itachi says.

"Any luck?" the thirteen year old asks, blinking wide orange eyes.

Itachi shakes his head. "No. None yet."

"I heard that the ship is ready for space travel now. Is that true?"

"Yes, Fu."

"But if you don't know where our home is, where will we go when we leave Tatooine? Are we just going to go to a new planet? Oh! Can we go to Kashyyyk? Huh, maybe I should learn Shyriiwook, first, huh?" Fuu squints at the dashboard past Itachi. She taps the pads of her fingers against her knees in thought. "I've been thinking about the wroshyr trees too. They kind of remind me of the trees back home. They are like those in the Land of Fire mostly, right?"

Itachi nods slowly. "Yes, Fu. But from what I understand wroshyr trees are a lot larger than the Land of Fire's. While it would be a good reminder of home, I wouldn't suggest jumping from one to the other unless you have good enough chakra control to catch yourself. If you fall, especially from the top, you'll die."

"That doesn't matter," Fu says simply. "I have wings."

Itachi blinks a few times before sighing. "I forgot about that."

Fu laughs. "It's okay! So, are you sure that you aren't hungry?"

"Yes," Itachi says. "Thank you. Apologize to Mabui for me." Fu nods, jumping to her feet and leaving the cockpit.

"I can feel you," a voice whispers in Itachi's ear, awakening him from his sleep in the cockpit pilot's seat. He could feel a presence looming over him, but he couldn't see anyone. But his sense of danger was gnawing at the back of his mind with an intensity that he simply could not ignore. He crawls over the arm of the seat and turns toward the door. He couldn't see anyone but he could feel the shadows lurking, pulling him towards them.

"Who's there?" Itachi calls out slowly.

"I see you," an old woman's voice says. It's strong and cold and holds a great power behind it that Itachi was not expecting.

Something compels Itachi to follow it, cautiously though. He walks through their small, but well repaired ship all the way to the exit, left open for them to get some air flow. Zetsu, who usually patrols at night, not needing to sleep, is no where near them. At least as far Itachi could tell. He knew that Zetsu was easily drawn away by things that were peculiar, so he's not too surprised. That and even with Zetsu watching over them, there was two demons that lived on the ship that didn't sleep even when their Jinchuriki did.

Itachi steps out into the landing pad and turns to see a tall figure, dressed up in a dark brown cloak with a large hood pulled up over her head the three moons shining overhead, casting a long shadow beneath her.

"You," the woman says. "Do you know who you are?"

That was such a strange question to ask. Itachi frowns. "I know who I am. Who are you?"

"Who I am, doesn't matter right now. What matters is, is if you know who you are?"

Itachi shifts uneasily. There was something strange about this woman. A power that radiated off of her in a way that Itachi didn't understand. "I know who I am," Itachi says, eyebrows pulled together.

"Do you?" the woman asks. "There is much power within you, yet it is wild, indecisive. The Force flows through you in a way I have never seen before. You are not a breach in the Force, yet it both flows through you and around you as if you are one with it and something completely foreign. You are... unusual. Your power over the Force is already so powerful yet you lack any true sense of control or understanding."

"The Force?" Itachi says slowly. "As in the Jedi?"

The woman tilts her head slowly. "Jedi? Or Sith? Is there really a question in there? The Force is not biased. It does not choose to be good or evil, it simply is."

Itachi didn't know what to say to that. He knew a bit about the Force from the memories he took from other people that came to Tatooine, but didn't really understand it. And to somehow be powerful in it? Now that didn't make sense to Itachi at all. How could he be powerful in something he wasn't so certain even truly existed?

Itachi believed in hard work. He believed that while one has the ability to do something, you have to work hard in order to be considered powerful in it. Itachi is considered a powerful Sharingan user, and he's spent most of his life learning how to control it's amazing power. Just like he's still learning how to utilize the even more amazing power of the Rinnegan. The ability isn't just there. He has to work hard to be able to do it properly. Like with anything. Things may come easily to him, but it's nothing perfect until after he's worked at it.

"What are you doing here?" Itachi asks, figuring he wasn't going to get a proper answer from this woman. Even though there was something powerful and ominous about this old woman, he didn't feel as though he and his comrades were in danger. At least at the moment.

"I passed by this planet because the Force pulled me here," the woman says. "You are a thing that is wedged in the Force so neatly, it's hard to ignore. I can offer you what guidance I can, but there is somewhere you need to learn from. Masters that need to acknowledge your existence and pieces that need to be moved into place."

Itachi frowns at her. "I need to return home-"

"And where is your home?" The woman asks, sharply. "Do you even know?"

No, admittedly, Itachi did not. He doesn't say anything, but his silence is enough for the woman.

"If you choose it, I will lead you to the path that may, or may not, one day take you home. The Force works in many ways, through many things, and it brought me here for a reason. To a child that has lost everything, especially himself." Itachi opens his mouth, about to deny the woman's words, but she continues, "Do not try and say one way or another that you are still you. There is wound inside of you. One that has slowly peeled away at who you are for many years. You hold onto a name as if it is significant, all the while, hating it for what it represents."

"I never told you my name," Itachi says.

The woman shakes her head slowly. "You don't have to. I can see it in you. You are filled with questions and desires that all conflict with one another, and there is a pain inside of you that at one point almost devoured you. Do not mistake this for anything other than what it is. The Force brought me here, and I believe it is because you are in desperate need of guidance. I can assist you in that regard, but I cannot force upon you something that you do not want. If so, such teachings and guidance will go unheeded and unused."

"That's it?" Itachi asks slowly. "Simply because you came here and saw me, you think that I need some kind of help?"

"You will not understand the Force and it's many workings in just one short conversation, child. But if there is any part of you that wishes to understand the piece of you that has yet to breath in your young life. I will come back again tomorrow, at sun down, to hear your answer." The woman turns around and walks away and out of sight.

"Hm, an interesting development," Zetsu says, stepping up beside Itachi.

"What are you doing here, Zetsu?" Itachi asks flatly, looking over at the plant-like man. "Why did you let her get so close?"

"It's odd," Zetsu says. "I didn't even realize she was there until after you had already awakened and came outside. It was almost as if she wasn't even there." His eyes widen, almost excitedly. "I wonder if this has something to do with this Force." He looks over at Itachi. "What will you do, Itachi?"

Itachi sighs, running his hand through his hair for a moment, looking up at the two moons in the sky. "I don't know."

"And she was just there?" Mabui asks, frowning deeply as all of them stood around the cock pit. After Itachi's strange encounter with the old woman outside of their ship, Itachi returned inside and immediately woke everyone up.

"Yes," Itachi says slowly. "She had much to say and none of it made much sense. She spoke in riddles but... I didn't sense any deception from her. I'm not sure how to explain it. She knew that I was looking for home, and that I couldn't find it. She... offered to help, I think."

"We can't trust her," Kakashi says simply. "She is some strange old woman who snuck up on us in the middle of night, didn't offer her name and barely spoke coherently and we are to trust her?" Kakashi shakes his head. "I could be wrong, but I feel like this is a no-brainer."

"Perhaps not, though," Han says, crossing his arms over his chest. "What she said can't be denied. We don't have anywhere else to go. We can't stay on Tatooine forever, there is nothing more here for us. We shouldn't wait for the Mandalorians to come to us. It is best we go and experience the galaxy, and then, we may find out way home."

"I agree with Han," Mabui says, "and Kakashi. Han, in the sense that we simply can't stay here. Tatooine is not our home and less time we spend here, the better we will ultimately be. Staying here won't bring us any closer to Gaia, but I'm not sure we should go and trust this woman all willy-nilly. Everything she says should be taken with a grain of salt."

"I say fuck it!" Hidan cuts in. "This old bitch is offering to help, right? We take it, cool! If not, let's fucking move on! Why does this have to make into a big damn deal?"

Fu laughs. "I don't know. I spoke with Auzak'fifi about Jedi once. She said that they were like guardians of peace in the galaxy. I think it would be really cool to see them up close."

"That is a bit of a selfish reason," Mabui says plainly. "Think about it more rationally, Fu. We do not know this woman. What if she isn't even a Jedi? She never even claimed to be one. We don't know where she want's us to go, or what she even gets out of this. If we go along with this, this strange woman must be watched."

Hidan shrugs his shoulders. "Fine. Whatever. We would have done that with anyone, right? I don't get what the big deal is."

"Is it a vote, then?" Kakashi asks, letting out a sigh.

"Sure," Mabui says, shrugging her thin, dark shoulders. "I choose we go with her."

"Agreed," Han says. "But carefully." Mabui nods.

"Let's go!" Fu says, jumping into the air excited.

Zetsu nods. "I think that we should go along as well. That old woman interests me."

"Fuck, finally!" Hidan says, tossing his hands up. "Can I go back to bed now?"

"I think we should at least check it out," Itachi says. "If it looks too hairy then we will find out another way of returning home."

They all look over at Kakashi, who sighs again. "You all know what I vote, but I'm outvoted, anyway. Let get a good night sleep. I don't think any of us will be too relaxed with a stranger on board for however long this journey takes us."

"We should all be weary of what information we offer her, too," Han says. "The least she knows about us, the better."

"Her interest is specifically you, Itachi," Kakashi says. "You might want to think about what all you are willing to offer. Your name, age, anything. Remember, all of it can be used against you one way or another. I'd think about it, if I were you."

Itachi knew that Kakashi was right, and the last thing he would want to do is put himself into yet another situation that he wasn't prepared for, but he sure wished he didn't have yet another reason not to sleep at night.

"Right," Itachi says, rubbing is forehead.

"Have you made your decision?" The old woman asks, keeping true to her word and showing up again the next day at nightfall. Everyone gathered outside with Itachi to stand as a united force against this strange woman, who they didn't know if she was there to help them, or hurt them. They may all be entirely different people, with different circumstances and reasons for the way their lives have turned out, but they were in this together.

Whether they wanted to be or not.

"Yes, we will go with you," Itachi says, stepping closer to her, rolling his shoulder back.

The woman nods, taking a few steps closer. "My name is Kreia and I will take you to Dantooine to meet with the Jedi Council. What is your name, child?"

Itachi pauses for a moment, looking over at Kakashi. There was a lot of things that even now are left unsaid between the two of them, but Itachi knew, deep in his heart, that even though they have an unfavorable history, Kakashi wouldn't set him a stray. In some ways, Itachi was still just that little boy, too young to be an ANBU but forced to join the Corps. by his father and was still just looking for his place in the world. Itachi may have done a lot that he isn't proud of, and even more that he will never admit to his one time mentor, teammate, captain and friend, but this was about all of them.

For whatever reason, Kakashi is starting to over think what happened to Itachi, and while Itachi doesn't want that, there really isn't anything that he can do about it. For now, he has to focus on what he can control.

He's going to find a way home, one way or another. Sasuke is waiting for him.

Kakashi nods, ever so slightly and Itachi turns back to face the woman, now known as Kreia.

"Very well," Itachi says slowly, staring into where the woman's eyes would be beneath the dark brown cloak. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Kreia. You may call me Revan."

For the Reviewers:

1\. 2ndUzukage: Oh no, it's fine! I hope that with someone like yourself looking out for this story, you will be able to make sure I'm staying on the right track. I would like to believe I know a decent amount about Star Wars, but sometimes I forget the little details, so I appreciate someone who's interested in the story looking out for it. So thank you!

2\. Guest: He did. It's... interesting that they are not all there with Itachi. Hmm. Interesting. I wonder what could have happened. XD

3\. alexc123: Haha, thank you!

4\. Scorez: Thank you! That is so sweet of you to say. There isn't much of a confrontation yet. I've been thinking about it, and rationally, all I could come up with is that they are too preoccupied with gaining their bearings and returning home. Once that is achieved, then they will worry about their past.


	4. Dantooine

Itachi - now Revan - quietly pilots his ship to Dantooine, with the coordinates provided by Kreia. It took them almost a week and a half to get there and it was almost like Kreia wasn't even there. They all made sure to stick together, rather than risk being alone in case Kreia tried to do something fishy to them. But she didn't make any sort of aggressive actions towards them. She remained in one of the side rooms for the duration of their trip.

Revan, being the pilot, didn't leave the cabin much. He may have the knowledge of people who have flown across the galaxy a hundred times before, but he personally hadn't and wasn't going to take the risk of making some kind of miscalculation. That, and perhaps he didn't really know how to face Kreia and her cryptic words. He spent a lot of time over the duration of their trip to Dantooine thinking about her worlds.

Everything that she said. The pain inside of him that almost swallowed him - the sickness he had until recently? - how he didn't know where his home was, how he lost everything - even himself, she had said - and his name!

"You hold onto a name as if it is significant, all the while, hating it for what it represents." That is what she said. He could try and will away everything that she said, but that was the only thing he honestly couldn't ignore. To some degree, he really did hold onto his name - his family name, mostly - out of a sense of honor to his family even though he was a disgrace to them, but he hated what it made him think of.

It reminded him of how they were going to betray the Hidden Leaf village. How they were going to turn his home into a warzone. He wanted nothing more than to never have to fight again, but such wishes were unreasonable in the world that he lived in. He was a ninja, he head to fight. Especially since there was someone innocent in the world now that relied solely on him and his power, to keep them safe.

Sasuke.

With Itachi's parents planning on betraying the Hidden Leaf and putting Sasuke's life in danger, Itachi was the only one who would have the power to protect him. Even if he used that power to kill his entire family except for Sasuke. Itachi hated his family for what they did. Or, at least, what they were planning on doing. He hated that they would forsaken everything; their collective honor, overall peace and event he stability of their home village, and for what? A little respect?

No, Itachi hated his family for the choices that they made, but he couldn't hate the name. Uchiha still meant something. Perhaps not so much to Itachi, but to Sasuke and to the people of the Hidden Leaf. The Uchiha could still be great, and Itachi believed that it was only possible with Sasuke as it's leader. The Uchiha name would have been scorned forever if Itachi had stayed.

It was right to leave Sasuke behind. Much hardship lies ahead for him, but it isn't something that he can't stand up to.

Or, at least, Itachi had thought. When the Mandalorians appeared they changed everything. The very fabric that Itachi laid down was all torn to shreds.

But that didn't change who Revan was. Or would be. Right now, Revan was little more than an idea. He was someone who had no past beyond the beginning of this journey and he had six companions and a ship to his name. His new name.

"We are close now," Revan says, pulling himself from his thoughts to see the planet of Dantooine come into view. The planet itself was beautiful. If Revan had to picture what his own would have looked like, it would look something a lot like Dantooine. It made Revan immediately like the planet, but he knew that it wasn't his own.

"We're here?" Fuu asks, jumping up from the co-pilot seat next to Revan, pushing away her notebooks and pencils filled with Twi'leki. She has been eagerly learning from him for whenever she runs into her friend again, who is a merchant that goes around the worlds. Before they left Fuu made sure to speak to her friend, Auzak'fifi, that they were going to Dantooine and would be there for a while. If Revan recalls correctly, the young woman promised to go there next so that they can see each other again.

So Revan has continued teaching Twi'leki to Fuu for when they do meet again. And honestly, it's a good idea to learn as many languages as possible to become more knowledgeable about the words, their people and their society. Just knowing alone is a powerful teacher.

"Yes," Revan says.

"Good," Kreia says, making Fuu yelp in surprise and stare suspiciously at the old woman standing at the entrance to the cockpit. "I'm sure the Masters here have already felt you coming. Once we land, I will go and speak to them, and then they will want to speak with you."

Revan nods slowly, not saying anything. He waits for her to turn and leave before returning his attention to landing the ship without killing any of them. He may know how to do it, but this is the first time he's doing it in real life. Revan is meticulous. He's going to do everything right. Or, perhaps 'right' isn't the correct way to put it. It is impossible to get everything right, but the idea is to at least do it to his own level of satisfaction.

He's not sure on the person he's going to become - how these worlds and experiences will change and mold him - but it's going to be someone that he can be proud of. Or at least acknowledge. For so long, he had no idea who he was - in any sense - and after he killed his family, he didn't really think he had much time or even the right to figuring it out. He had done so much wrong - especially then - and now no longer was able to do the soul searching necessary to figuring himself out and so it seemed moot at that point.

But now, not so much. Now he has an entire slew of new chances that he never thought would be before him and he's not so certain he knows what to do with them other than help them forge who he will become.

Beneath everything else, despite this journey and the people he'll meet and the things he'll do, he is a ninja at his core. The arte of deception is key to not only their survival, but their way of life. As much as Revan wants to be the good guy that can help everyone, save everyone, but he's well aware that isn't the case. He knows who he is, and the lifestyle and choices he's chose, being the token hero just isn't really an option.

Well, Revan can't see into the future, despite what people believe and what his family wanted people to believe, so he will just have to live this life to the best of his abilities and be the person that these worlds help forge him into and hopefully one day this journey will lead him back to his home. Back to his little brother. Because no matter how much he may come to like who he is, he will never like himself more than he loves Sasuke and should the opportunity ever present itself, Itachi will reappear and return home without a second thought.

Revan walks out of his ship with his companions, all of them looking around at the lush green and life that surrounds them. Like Revan suspected, it did remind him of his homeworld. There was differences, which is to be expected, but it definitely wasn't a Tatooine, which served Revan and his companions fine.

Fuu gasps loudly, turning full circle, eyes wide as she looks around, reaching over and grabbing onto Han's arm. She gives it a few yanks, a big smile spreading across her face. "Wow! Look, Han! Everything is so green!"

Han nods slowly, more interested in eyeing the people, rather than the scenery. "It is."

"It's nice to be able to see something that isn't sand," Mabui says, bringing a hand up to shade her eyes from the early noon sun beating down on them.

Kakashi's sharp black eye scans the people, noting all of the merchants that have set up shop around them. The children traveling in groups of two or three, and even the groups of children following after adults. "Yes..." Kakashi says slowly, watching as every one of the adults dressed in long, unfamiliar robes turn sharply to look at them. Children, teenagers and adults alike all turn and look at them with wide, curious or narrowed eyes.

These are Jedi, Kakashi thinks to himself, shifting a bit closer to Mabui, who placed her hands onto Fuu's shoulders to calm the excitable girl down a bit.

"The fuck you all staring at, huh?" Hidan snaps, making Kakashi, Mabui and Han jump at the loudness of his voice, especially in Mabui's ear.

"Hidan!" Mabui snaps, glaring turquoise eyes at the lilac eyed man.

"Hey, shut the hell up!" Fuu yells back, hands flying to her hips as she glares up at the white haired man. "You're making a big ol' scene!"

Revan steps off the ramp and next to Hidan, casting him an annoyed look, but is actually thankful that whether they knew it or not Fuu and Hidan were now arguing in their own language, which no one other than they knew. Hidan knows galactic basic, but doesn't appear to like speaking it. He uses it to understand what people are saying and if he needed to, communicate with them, but he rarely needed to say anything back and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy being able to speak a language no one but a handful knew and watch as people stare back at him confused, not understanding.

Kakashi lets out a long winded sigh, shaking his head and turning away from the two bickering comrades to continue to survey the people around them. Revan and his comrades, if they weren't already the center of attention, they were now. Revan didn't really mind. He was used to people staring at him, and he knew that Kakashi felt very similar, but it was something that was to be expected where they lived because of who they are.

This is different.

They are not home. They are with strangers. People who are from entirely different worlds from them with entirely different morals was something that they ad to adjust to on Tatooine, and now again on Dantooine. This was definitely not the same place and way of life that they grew used to on the desert world. There it was a dog eat dog world. One either adapted and lived, or didn't and died. It didn't really feel that way here.

Revan was no Jedi, but his ninja sense were keen enough to alert him to the power of this world. He could feel it flowing around him. He wasn't sure what exactly it was about this place, but there was definitely something here that was very powerful. This place really did remind Revan of his own. Or, Itachi's home. Perhaps Revan didn't really have a home. This was all about new beginnings.

"Stop it, you two," Mabui says, putting her hands on Fuu's shoulders and steering her away from Hidan.

"Knock it off, Hidan," Kakashi says sharply. Hidan glares at him, but doesn't respond. On Tatooine, Kakashi has already shown that when he gets a certain tone to his voice, that Hidan better pipe down because Kakashi isn't going to take his shit. It's as simple as that. There was one time a few months prior that at every turn Hidan was antagonizing all of them, living up to his reputation for being a wild card and when it got to be insane, Kakashi and Hidan went out into the dunes. When they came back, well, all that was clear was that Kakashi was no longer going to take Hidan excessive crap anymore.

Most things, he'll let go. But go too far and Kakashi will give him that look or change his tone and even though Hidan looks disgruntled about it, he usually obeys. Then mutters something obscene about Kakashi under his breath that Kakashi would saintly ignore, which only seems to aggravate Hidan more, that Kakashi also ignores.

Which usually only serves to annoy Hidan more.

Revan turns his attention toward Kreia, who is walking out of the building in front of them. She doesn't hesitate for a moment once she exited the building to walk toward them with purpose. All of their attention turns to Kreia as she stops in front of Revan.

"The Masters here wish to speak with you," Kreia says. "When you are ready, come and speak to me and I will take you to speak with the council."

"You have been very illusive," Kakashi says. "Who is this 'council'?"

"They are Masters of the Order. Here they can provide training," Kreia says. "if they agree to take you on as an apprentice."

Revan raises a thin, dark eyebrow. "If?" he echoes. Could this be another dead end? In the back of his mind, Revan had hoped that this would be the ultimate avenue that would lead him back home and to his brother.

It wasn't like this was a waste of time, really, since it was come to Dantooine to follow this strange lead or wonder aimlessly through the universe to hopefully find any Mandalorians that could possibly know their way back to Revan's homeworld. Anything to see Sasuke again.

Anything.

"They can feel you," Kreia says, looking at Revan. "It would be blind ignorance if they do not accept you for training, but you will get training nonetheless. There is a path you must walk and learning the ways of the Jedi is one of many events, I think, that will assist you on your journey." Revan had so many questions. So many things he wanted to ask. He still wasn't sure what he thought about this whole Jedi thing, but he wanted to get home. If by meeting with these so called Masters and receiving some training is going to help him do that. Revan will do just about anything.

"How will I receive training if the Masters here turn me away?" Revan asks, tilting his head to the side. He had his suspicions but wanted Kreia to say it herself.

"I will train you," Kreia says simply.

"Why?" Revan asks.

"It shouldn't surprise you," Kreia says, tilting her head a bit, eyes still obscured beneath her brown hood. "I went to Tatooine's surface to find you. I feel great power in you. Because of closed-eyed Masters many students that are not found at the precise age are turned away even though they hold such power and promise. Destinies denied because of old men's foolishness," Kreia tuts, shaking her head. She crosses her arms over her chest. Obviously something in the past rubbed her the wrong way when it came to this. Curious.

Revan opens his mouth, about to ask another question when Kreia holds up her hand to stop him. "We have spoken enough of this now. We shouldn't keep the Masters here waiting much longer."

Revan wanted to ask more, but decided that there would be time later for those, and nods his head in agreement. "Okay." He looks over at Kakashi, one black eye meeting the other, before Kakashi nods ever so slightly and Revan turns his head back toward Kreia. "Very well, Kreia, lead the way."

Kreia turns around without a second thought and heads back toward the building. Revan follows after her. It's not a front door that they go through, but rather a ramp that descends down to a landing that levels out. It wasn't ominous though, like Revan originally thought it would feel. In fact, there was a yearning. It was a tug at his gut. A strange feeling that he can't seem to place.

There is... power in this place, that he can sense. It's strange. He usually senses power in people, rather than places, so this was exceedingly strange to him, but he's not sure if it's his own sensing abilities vamped up by his good health now, or it has something to do with the Rinnegan. Or, this place is so powerful that even someone as numb to the senses in places like Revan could feel it. Which is a strange thought.

The large - hall? Front door? - leads to a courtyard with two strange, small trees in the center with thick trunks but small branches. Revan pauses a moment to stare at them curiously before going to the left to keep up with Kreia who didn't even pause for a moment. Revan makes it to her heels and slows down, looking around at all of the old and worn out walls. He's not used to the building structures for it isn't like home or Tatooine but it is obviously very old.

They take a left and then an immediate right and into an open room with four men waiting on the other side.

Revan knew power.

He knew when he was standing before someone more powerful than him, especially if they aren't even attempting to mask such power from him. Revan is smart enough to be able to tell that someone has more power than him. These four men, and Kreia alike, were powerful. They were stronger than him, especially together, but there was something strange about their power. At least about the four men in front of Revan. There was something limiting about their power. Shackles that bound them in a way that Revan didn't understand. They were probably not easily bested, but their flaw was apparent, but not in a way that Revan's limited knowledge of Jedi could easily identify.

It was just... odd.

The flaw the four men before him had - or perhaps weakness is a better word for it - wasn't something that Revan could sense in Kreia, which made her more interesting, and deadly to the teen.

"So this is the boy Master Kreia has spoken to us about," A black man says, tipping his head a bit as Revan stopped next to Kreia in front of them.

"What is your name, son?" The red twi'lek asks, tilting his head a bit. His purple eyes were wide and clear, there is something about him that Revan immediately liked.

"Revan," Revan says slowly, looking down at the strange alien before him. Unlike the twi'lek, he did not recognize the smallest of the Masters. He couldn't be more than two and half feet tall with thin white hair over a light brown skin and green eyes. He had three fingers on each hand and feet. There was strange ridges to the bridge of his nose and his eyes were uncannily wide. He wasn't the strangest alien Revan has ever seen, but he was by far the oldest, Revan could tell. His eyes were very wise and his skin belied a long life.

"I am Master Dorak," the black man says, offering a kind smile, that appeared very genuine.

"I am Master Zhar," the twi'lek says, offering another nod.

"Master Vandar," the small, strange alien says.

"And I am Master Vrook," the bolding white man says, frowning a bit.

Revan takes a moment to look between all of them. Standing before all of them now, it was obvious that they all had some great power, but it was different from the power that he was used to. He didn't know how to compare it to himself. He didn't know, in terms of battle, who would win in a battle. Himself or one of these masters.

"What now?" Revan asks, looking at each man in turn with his single, dark eye.

Zhar looks over at the other Masters, being on Revan's far right side. "There is great power in this one. The Force flows around him, and through him, like a tidal wave. It is unwise to ignore someone this powerful right before our very eyes."

"I agree," Dorak says, being second to the left. "There is obvious power here. Trained, to a degree, but there is still a long way to go for him. What he needs is not something that can come with time. He may be older than what we would usually take in, but we have made exceptions before."

"None have ever been this promising," Vandar says, blinking one eye out of sync with the other. "The power here is tremendous."

"He may still be young," Vrook says slowly, "but he is already very powerful."

"Such power must be honed," Dorak says. "If left untrained, even untapped, it is a misfortune to the galaxy and himself."

Revan glances over at Kreia, wondering if it was natural for the Masters to speak about someone as if they weren't even there. She shakes her head very slowly before turning back toward the other men.

"I felt Revan through the Force a great distance away. I followed it all the way to Tatooine. Him being there breathed a form of life into the world that visibly faded when he left," she says simply. Now that was news to Revan. She hadn't mentioned anything like that before.

"Perhaps," Vrook says, sounding unconvinced, and looking it too, "but that could be many different factors."

"You cannot ignore how even Dantooine has shifted since this boy's arrival, Master Vrook," Zhar says, looking at the human displeased. "The Force flowing through this world is vibrating in a way that I have never felt before." A pause, then, "What about you, Master Vandar?"

The old foreign alien stares up at Revan with wide green eyes. "You eye, Revan, is it injured?"

Revan shakes his head. "No. I hide it because it scares people."

"How so?" Vrook asks, as if that was such a preposterous thing to hear. To even believe.

Revan hesitates, wondering how to explain it. He knew that he had to be careful. He knew that he had to watch what he said and did around strangers but his Rinnegan eye was simply something that couldn't be avoided. He figured, going into this, that he would have to reveal his eye to everyone. They didn't have to know everything about it or where it came from, but he couldn't avoid them seeing it. Not everyone, and not all the time. It was best to just get it out of the way.

Revan reaches up with his left hand and pushes the thin hair aside with the back of it, letting the pressure of the Rinnegan shine through. Vandar is the only one who doesn't outwardly react right away but it's obvious by Vrook and Dorak that they feel it, their bodies tensing up, while Zhar takes a physical step back, purple eyes wide.

"There is great power in that eye," Vandar says. "The Force flows through it as if it was a separate entity than you. Interesting."

Revan drops his hair back over his eye, using it to dampen the pressure that leaks out of the eye with the thin strands of hair. The men start to relax again, but they do eye Revan wearily, which he can sagely understand. He's come to learn quickly why Pein was so feared. He was very powerful, there is no doubt about that. While Revan didn't know much about his one-time boss, he couldn't deny the power that radiated off of him in the handful of times that he was in his presence but it was getting obvious to Revan now that a lot of that monstrous power also stemmed from the godly optics that he possessed.

It was very interesting to Revan. What he wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and talk to Pein about it - if having such an informative was something that would have even been possible at that time - then he would. He would love to sit down and learn all the things that Pein knew about the optic. Not to learn about his one-time bosses weaknesses but to just learn about the optic, itself. Zetsu didn't have much to say about Obito, Madara or Pein, other than what he said when they were first kidnapped by the Mandalorians, but he did talk about the Rinnegan a lot. At least everything he could. Or, perhaps, willing is a better word for it.

"So," Revan says, glancing over at Kreia, feeling her heavy gaze on the side of his face, "where does this lead us?"

"Your power is... undeniable," Zhar says slowly. He casts a sideways glance at the other Masters, Kreia included, to ensure his words were part of the group consensus. He must have gotten the feeling that they all agreed thus far, because he turns his eyes back to Revan and continues, "And it would definitely be within our best interest to take you on as an apprentice."

"I'm in?" Revan asks, dumbly, blinking a single black eye rapidly. For some strange reason, he thought that there was going to be a lot more hoops that he would have to jump through in order to get it.

"We agree to take you on as an apprentice," Vrook says, sharply. "How you proceed from there is of your own power and ability. It will not be an easy task set out before you."

"Apprentices far younger than you have a tough time grasping the concepts of our Order when they are far more open then your own, who is at least twice the age we would usually allow," Dorak warns.

"You must be prepared to learn and accept truths beyond your natural belief," Vandar says. "Our way of life is different from the one you were raised in." Revan couldn't agree more. He knew very little about the Jedi other than that they were keepers of the peace, which was the exact opposite of the world he was raised in, and had to wonder how he would be able to adapt and overcome.

And if he couldn't, how well he could fake it.


	5. Fledgling Bond

Training to be come a Jedi was like five separate headaches coming on at once.

It was understandable that they would treat him like all of the other apprentices that come their way - he didn't expect to be treated differently - but he wasn't really sure he knew how he felt about being put into a class filled with all children. All of them around eight years old. Some only a year or two older, some younger. But Revan was without a doubt the oldest apprentice in the room. He felt strange sitting in the back of the room, surrounded by children. He didn't know anything more than they did. He was in the same boat as them in that regard.

It was just... weird.

In his shinobi life, Revan was always the youngest in the class. Everyone looked at him and underestimated him because he was so small and so young. But now it's the opposite. He's the oldest in a class and all these little kids are staring at him as if he's some kind of freak. He didn't so much care what a bunch of kids thought about him, but it was just weird sitting there amongst them. He felt like a giant next to these kids.

Thankfully though, since he studied hard, he was able to get pushed up and offered specialized training, to keep him moving along. While Jedi training is long and tedious and truly never ends - much like shinobi training - the Masters realized quickly that Revan shouldn't be treated like the others. Like any that joined the Order, older than what they usually allowed, they needed specialized training because they simply didn't have the same time that the regular apprentices did.

There was one aspect of Jedi training that came to Revan easily, other than sword play, which he used briefly in his ANBU days and managed to muster the courage to ask Kakashi to help dust off his training in that regard when he learned that the Jedi weapon of choice is a sword-like weapon called a lightsaber. It's in moments like this that Revan missed Kisame. He wished that he would have asked the older, blue man for tips on the sword that would have been able to help him out now. But alas that time has come and gone.

True to the warnings of the Masters, Revan is having trouble grasping some of the principles of the Jedi Order.

There is no emotion, there is peace. 

But all living beings have emotions. By stripping someone of their emotions, they would lose what makes them who they are. Sure, peace would come from that, because there is no more reason to fight anymore. If people have no emotions, then they have no desire to fight for something, or even defend it. Even if there was a war, it would be met with little resistance and a quick end. Can that even be considered a war?

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

Without ignorance, how can one know to seek knowledge? Desire it, even? It's from the realization of one's ignorance that brings someone to the point where they desire to seek knowledge in order to achieve something or try to understand something. Without ignorance, how can one become motivated to seek knowledge? What would be their driving force?

There is no passion, there is serenity.

How can one do battle against the Dark Side without passion? Without the desire to eliminate the darkness, how can one achieve serenity? Revan can only imagine old monks from the temples back on Gaia that refused to fight in any and all forms. They would sit peacefully while their temples were ransacked and their guards killed as if nothing was happening. If there is no passion to fight, that goes against their desire to rid the galaxy of darkness, doesn't it? They wouldn't fight the Dark Side, but merely live in serenity with how the galaxy shifted around them?

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

It's basically the same concept as passion and serenity. Without chaos, how can one be truly harmonious? It's like all things that could be associated with the negative aspects of the spectrum shouldn't be allow - which Revan can understand why they believe that because negative emotions or even too strong emotions in general lead them to the Dark Side, they believe - but they don't acknowledge that without those Dark Side indicators in their lives, influencing them to a point, then their code makes absolutely no sense and even becomes obsolete without it.

There is no death, there is the Force.

Now this is the only one that Revan doesn't have any problem with. The Jedi - and Sith, by extension to a degree, he supposed - believed that all life and all chose stemmed from the Force. They believed that the Force was the guiding well, force, in all things. It is what dictates actions and paths and helps people develop a better understanding of the worlds, universe, and all of the people that resides in them. Everything is connected by the Force. People, places, plants, actions, events, everything. It kind of reminded Revan of the Will of Fire but to the extreme.

He didn't know how the universe came to be, and wasn't really a religious fanatic so he didn't have much of an opinion on it. If these people wanted to believe that the Force dictated everything, who was he to say otherwise. The logical thinker in Revan almost appreciated that everything was so neatly interwoven together. It rang true in his belief as well that every action as an equal benefit and consequence.

It lined up nicely with the Jedi code in that retrospect, he supposed.

"There is always consequences," Vrook would say over and over again as if Revan hadn't heard him the first time. But like always, he would right off the equal benefit that would come with it in time.

"Revan," Vrook says, pulling Revan from his thoughts.

"Yes?" Revan says softly, raising his eyes to meet with the older man's narrow ones.

"Are you listening?" Vrook asks, crossing his arms over his chest. "Or am I just speaking to myself?"

"I'm sorry, Master Vrook," Revan says softly, "I was just thinking about the Jedi Code."

Vrook's eyebrow quirks up a bit before he lets out a slow sigh and lowers down to the ground in front of the Revan on the training mats. Vrook was the master that took up his personal training. The man actually was very familiar to Revan in a sense. Much of his mannerisms and teaching ways rang similar to that of Revan's own father. He's crotchety and strict, but reminds him much of how his father used to be.

It makes him miss home, but more specifically, his little brother. But he quickly sends those thoughts away. Missing Sasuke will not help him get home to his little brother faster.

Vrook, while very skeptical of Revan's training in the beginning, it probably the Master he is closest with. All of the Masters had much to offer Revan in training, they all have different views of the world and while the other Masters, like Dorak and Zhar are more likeable, Vrook is the one that he connected to almost immediately after his training started.

"What troubles you, Revan?" Vrook asks, voice stoic.

"Is it the contradiction within the Code that helps give it plausibility? I understand in the most basic of views that the Dark Side is evil and bad and shouldn't have a place in the universe, but without the aspects of the Dark Side, how can the Light even exist?" Revan reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind his right ear, peering through his thin hair at the older man.

Vrook doesn't respond right away. He takes a moment to carefully consider Revan's words before saying, slowly, "Your question is logical, and while I'd like to say that within the Code there is failsafes that should the Dark Side be defeated, the Light will prevail, but that's not necessarily the case. One cannot exist without the other, but that doesn't mean that they are equals."

Revan doesn't respond right away. He doesn't want to just assume from Vrook's words, but the man didn't really answer his question, but he did say some things that he wasn't expecting from his strict master. It just gives him more questions than answers. Although, Revan is glad that he didn't just try and sprout the Code back to him, but he kind of wished it was more than nonsense.

"If you acknowledge that one cannot exist without the other, isn't there a way to find balance?" Revan asks, adjusting the way he's sitting a bit to take the pressure off of his ankles.

Vrook stares at him. "That is what the Jedi are about. Bringing balance to the Force."

"I'm confused," Revan admits. "If Jedi's are keepers of balance, wouldn't that mean that one should technically be a nice mixture of both Light and Dark?"

"In a perfect world, yes," Vrook admits, interlacing his fingers together on his lap. "But you mustn't forget, if one begins to believe and follow the ways of the Dark Side, it is hard to pull away from it's seduction. If such a thing were simple, yes, I'm sure there is a way to achieve balance through both Light and Dark, but it isn't possible."

Revan shakes his head. "How can you know that? People who practice the Dark Side of the Force would probably only do it in secret, for fear that they would be hunted by the Order. How can one achieve true peace without first accepting the two halves of the Force? Maybe it's not so much about Light and Dark, but moreso Yin and Yang."

Vrook frowns at him, which is an expression he's seen many times before in his three months of training under the Masters on Dantooine.

Revan explains, "The Force isn't inherently good or evil. It dictates things on all sides o the spectrum. It is a thing that doesn't make a conscious choice, shackled by what we deem as good and bad. It's like nature, in that sense. The more I learn about the Force, the more I am able to connect to nature as so. Why do we call it evil for gifting powers of all forms, because that is what it comes in? Why is only some of it good while others are not? How can we be the ones to accurately decide one way or the other?"

"Questions, Revan, are good," Vrook finally says.

Revan stares at him for a long moment, before saying, almost accusingly, "Yet you have no answers for them, do you?"

Vrook frowns even more at that. "Mere speculation, and perhaps my own biased. But what would you have me say, Revan? That it is wise to encourage teachings of the Sith here?" He scoffs. "I assure you, Revan, that is not going to happen."

"Why does it have to be the teachings of the Sith?" Revan asks. "Why can't it simply be understanding the Force in it's entirety?"

"Are the two so different?" Vrook asks rhetorically.

"Does it have to be?" Revan asks back, just as sharply.

Vrook sighs, as if dealing with an impudent child. The conversation died off after that, as Revan kind of expected that it would, and it left him with more questions than with answers.

 

"How is your training going?" Mabui asks after not having all of them together in the last two weeks since Revan has been busy training.

"It's training," Revan admits, eating slowly to savor the meal. Mabui wasn't the greatest cook in the world but was definitely a lot better than the ones preparing their meals in the academy. "How about you guys? What has been occupying your guys' time while I have been training?"

"A lot of the same," Kakashi says. "Training, getting a feel for the world-"

"Killing the hell out of the fucking kinrath population," Hidan says, pleased.

Revan stares at him, lips parting slightly to mention something about how the balance of nature is delicate and if Hidan fucked it up by killing all of the Kinrath and Horned Kinrath, then Revan is going to have to kick the hell out Hidan and then boot his ass off the planet. But he doesn't have to say that, it sounds too much of a mixture of the Jedi training and something that isn't any more Itachi than Revan is.

Revan looks over at Fuu. "How is it going, Fuu? How is your training?"

Fuu beams over at him. "Yeah! I'm doing great! Han and Kakashi are really good teachers!"

"Kakashi as well?" Revan says curiously, glancing over at his old captain curiously.

Kakashi shrugs his shoulders, nonchalantly. He runs his fingers through his long, messy silver hair. He looks like he's trying to tame it for a moment before giving up and letting his hand drop onto the table. "You don't know me. I am full of surprises, Revan." He seems amused. Revan just stares back at him, wondering what the man was trying to cover up.

"What's going on?" Revan finally asks, looking around the little room on the ship he basically built from the ground up. It hasn't been all that long since he's last been in here, yet for some reason it's felt like a lifetime. Learning a new way of life is quickly consuming all of the house of the day with simply learning it, coming to understand it goes beyond even that.

"Nothing," Kakashi says, interlacing his fingers together. "We just had a nice long discussion the other day about one day returning home."

"And?" Revan says, looking around, noting that the only part of their little group that isn't there is Zetsu. From what he understands from Kakashi, Zetsu has been spending a lot of time wandering around Dantooine, using his ability to travel through plant life to learn about the lay out of the land, it's wildlife and fauna, gathering up anything and everything that they could use and bringing it back aboard the ship.

Kakashi shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not sure what else to say. We kind of reached an impasse."

Revan raises an eyebrow. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Oh, that we kind of hit a dead point in the conversation," Fuu supplies. "I asked Mabui about it yesterday."

Revan turns a single visible black eye to the youngest of their group, silently contemplating something before nodding slowly. "Yes, I see. Thank you, Fuu." The girl beams, proudly. Revan catches Hidan groan and roll his eyes, muttering something under his breath that Revan didn't quite hear, but if it's what he thinks then he's glad he didn't. It was positively vulgar.

Han answers the question, as if Hidan hadn't spoken at all. "We are split about how we are going to deal with what we've come to learn about the universe once we return home. Should we tell everyone about it? Only a select few? Keep it a secret? The chances of anyone believing us without any proof is very slim and even if we brought back something that proves it, are we ready as a planet to unlock the secrets of the universe as we have?" Hidan shakes his head. "It's a lot to consider. We are pretty war-torn. There is little unity amongst our people outside of the Empire, and even then we are loyal mostly in name. The Empire wants next to nothing to do with us. It's always been like that."

Intrigued, Revan asks, "What's your standpoint, Han?"

The goliath of a man hums, closing brown eyes. "My loyalties is to Iwa," he says finitely. "But I worry about what Lord Third would do with this information, if he believed it. I can't honestly say I know one way or another, but still there is a reason we are space fairing like hundreds of other species are. I am hesitant on whether we should say anything at all."

"See, I agree with Han in that perspective," Mabui says. "We aren't a tech-orient race. We are stuck in what would appear to be primitive means to these people. But at the same time, this could be the push we need to advance together as a race. All of us. Being out here has taught me that a lot of our ways are no longer very convenient. In fact, if anything, we are holding ourselves back from what we could be without knowledge of the planets beyond our own to help guide us. Being space fairing, also means that we are a bigger part of the universe and a part of the galactic community."

"But in order to blend in, we would be sacrificing a big part of who we are as a people to accomplish that," Kakashi says flatly, staring at the dark skinned woman.

Mabui sighs exasperatedly. "I understand what you are saying, Kakashi, and while we already agreed that war amongst our own people has gone on long enough-"

"-by joining the galactic community we will be entering into their wars and even getting caught up in things that we don't want to. We are reclusive by nature, it's who we are, while we will want to forge alliances, and maybe even integrate into the Republic, that doesn't mean that we want to butt our nose into everyone else's business. That and we aren't even a united force, we are a mosh-posh of different villages, Empires, exc. There is no stable foundation in a galactic sense." Kakashi leans back in his seat.

Mabui stares at him pointedly. "I get that," she says calmly. "This just might be the kick in the ass we all need to finally get our shit together now that we know that there is more out there in the universe than us."

Kakashi nods. "Alright, Mabui. I will concede to that. Maybe this could be what we need, but I'm not sure we are really ready to change. Maybe it's because I'm a pessimist at heart, but I'm not convinced."

Mabui shakes her head while Hidan says, "I agree with Hatake. All those fuckers down there would lose their fucking minds if they found about this..." he waves his head around his face a bit, gesturing to the space around them. "The only reason we didn't suffer a lot of culture shock is because we aren't fucking stupid and had to just adapt in order not to fucking die on that shit planet Tatooine." Everyone stares at him in surprise.

"I..." Han says slowly. "I agree with Hidan. A big part of the reason we have been able to make it this far is because we had to in order to surprise. I hadn't actually thought about culture shock seeing as we didn't really experience it for ourselves."

"We didn't have time," Fuu says softly. "We just had to accept Tatooine and move forward."

Kakashi nods. "I never thought about that. We kept our thoughts on how we as a people would have to change in order to adapt to a possible unification with one another, not how we would have to blend in with societies laws."

"And that's just another thing," Mabui says slowly. "We would have to adapt as a whole to the differences in laws for the Republic."

The room falls quiet for a moment. Everyone lost to their own thoughts. The sounds of the ship groaning around them and the vents blowing out cool air around them.

Finally, Revan says, "I can see why you all reached the impasse." Revan wasn't sure there was much else that he could offer up, except that it was all a moot point until they were able to track down the Mandalorians and find their home planet in the first place.

 

"Hey."

Revan doesn't move right away, still drifting somewhere between deep meditation and awareness of the world around him. While he was in one of the training rooms in the Jedi enclave after another grueling day of training another four months after his conversation with Han, Fuu, Mabui, Kakashi and Hidan about their eventual return to their homeworld, his conscious mind is out in the fields to the west of there, watching the kinrath and horned kinrath prowling about.

He pulls his mind back into the room with him to feel two Force users in the room with him. He recognized their signatures - Force, not Chakra - as students that were two years his senior. He had little interaction with his peers, preferring his solitude so that he can train up in these new, foreign abilities in peace. He was finally getting a solid grasp of it. He still had many questions but the techniques were finally being picked up now that he has finally mentally shifted away from the shinobi mindset and to the Jedi one. It was a pin to finally do, but once he did, his training sped up immensely.

Apparently he's foreseen as a prodigy in Jedi training as in shinobi. Lucky him.

Revan opens his eyes slowly to see a girl standing in front of him. He lowers to the ground before looking up at the girl to get a clearer look at her. She was about the same height as him with blond hair long enough to be pulled up into a small ponytail that bounced around behind her as she tilted her head back and forth curiously with large light blue eyes staring down at him. Her pale skin seemed almost washed out by the bright lights in the training room. Revan dare say, just by the shape of her face and the aura that her presences bleeds through the Force as peaceful and calm, that she was beautiful.

"Hey," she says again, offering a smile. "I see you meditating in here all the time, but never got around to saying hello. You're Revan, aren't you?"

Revan nods slowly. "Yes. And you are?"

"Oh!" The girl says, straightening up with a charming smile. "I'm Meetra Surik. It's nice to meet you."

Revan stands up slowly, legs aching from being in one position for a long time. He takes a moment to stretch his aching muscles before tipping his head respectfully to her, which she returns. "Pleasure," he murmurs. His dark eye flickers over to the man standing a few feet away from her, watching curiously. His skin is as pale as Meetra's, with large, dark eyes and a head full of dark hair to contrast it. There is a frown on his lips and he stares at Revan as if unsure what to think about him. Revan can feel him subtly reaching out to him with the Force to try and get a feel for him.

Meetra follows his gaze over her shoulder to him, waiting a moment, before stepping back a bit and making a sweeping gesture between them. "Revan, this is Alek, a close friend of mine. Forgive him, he's shy." Revan isn't sure what it is, but staring at the slightly older boy in front of him, he can feel some sort of strange, invisible connection to him. It's not a form of bond that he understands. This must be his first tangible connection through the Force, but he's not sure for what reason that he feels it.

Alek finally reacts, glaring over at the girl that he easily towers over by at least a foot and a half. Which bods the same for Revan.

"Meetra," Alek says, annoyance evident in his voice, "I am not shy." Revan can feel a bit of annoyance slither through the Force at his words to further emphasize his words.

Meetra smiles. "Well, sorry. It was either say that, or that you are anal retentive about him because all the Masters sing his praise." Alek's face doesn't change, but the annoyance in the Force around him intensifies. So does Meetra's smile.

"Don't bother yourself with the words of others," Revan says smoothly, pulling both of their eyes back to him. "The perceptions of others shouldn't out weigh your own. If you want to know what I am about, see if for yourself."

"I couldn't agree more," Meetra replies smoothly, putting her hands onto her waist. "So, how about it? Mind having a bit of company?"

Revan shakes his head. "You are free to do as you wish." Meetra looks back over at Alek, smiles, then shrugs, lowering down into a meditative position on the floor in front of Revan, who easily follows suit. He's usually pretty reclusive, opting for it because he's not going to be part of this life forever and knows how useless it is to just get close to people when he knows that he is going to be leaving them soon enough.

But a little company every once and a while can't be bad. And besides, Revan hasn't been around people around his own age in a while. Fuu is a little younger than him and Hidan is a little older, more Kakashi's age than Revan's.

"So," Meetra says as Alek lowers himself next to her slowly, her eyes on Revan, "tell us about yourself."

"There's nothing much to tell," Revan says simply.

Meetra looks contemplative for a moment. "Um, how about how old you are?"

Honestly, Revan didn't know anymore. The was a lot less hours in the day on Tatooine than back n their home, and it was still less here on Dantooine. Based on the planets that they were on, about seven months had passed since they all arrived on Tatooine, but he didn't know how to calculate that time compared to when they were on their own planet.

"I don't know," Revan says softly. "Sixteen years old. Maybe seventeen." He shrugs his shoulders. While he knows that it's something important to Mabui, for Fuu's sake, it honestly didn't matter to him one way or another. The passage of time always meant little to him, simply because he had nothing to look forward to other than his own inevitable death at the hands of his little brother for the sake of their family honor, but now all it represents is how long he's been away, and what his chances of returning home are.

"You don't know?" Meetra says softly, eyebrows pulling together. She looks down at her lap for a moment. "I'm sorry."

Revan shakes his head. "It's not your fault," he dead pans, feeling the spike of anger slice through him. Normally, no one would be able to tell, because his face remained unmoving, but Meetra and Alek did. They felt it through the Force. He knew they did the moment it coursed through him. His training, while impressively accomplished in the last four months, still haven't built up the necessary awareness to always be able to keep such feelings from leaking into the Force and alerting everyone of his feelings.

"But it is somebodies," Alek says pointedly. "You blame someone for not knowing."

"Don't misunderstand," Revan says, voice flat. He wasn't a big fan of people being able to just read him. Having spent his entire life able to control how much of himself he lays bare for those around him to see, it's jarring being unable to control such a thing anymore. Keeping his emotions off of his face is easy. Keeping them out of the Force is a trying task indeed.

"Misunderstand what?" Alek asks, quirking a dark eyebrow.

"I care little for the passage of time," Revan says.

"Then why are you so mad?" Meetra asks, her voice genuine.

Revan doesn't respond right away. He considers his next words carefully, wondering how it can be received from the two in front of him. Meetra seems kind. Her aura is peaceful and calm and Revan gets the impression that all of it's genuine. He's seen Meetra around, hasn't spoken to her and didn't know her name until today, but she seems like a ball of sunshine. She's well liked by everyone, has a firm belief in protecting the innocent and helping all those that need it, and is said to be very powerful in the Force.

Alek, on the other hand, Revan hadn't seen other than in passing until today. Now that he knows the boy's name, he does recognize it. The Masters are pleased with him as well. They say that he is very powerful in the Force. He heard some of his classmates whispering about how Alek was a shoe-in to be knighted not long after his padawanship.

Revan's not sure how they know that, seeing as it is the Masters that get to decide that, but figured they would know better than he about such things anyway. Honestly, though the gossip and the drivel of fellow students means little to Revan. He's just concentrating on his training in hopes that Kreia is right and that the Force will eventually use this opportunity to take him home. Or, at least give him the tools he needs to be able to get home himself and with the others.

Kreia, like the other four Masters, is a constant presence in his training. Apparently it is unusual for Kreia to of been here for as long as she is. Master Dorak mentioned something about her being there as odd. If she ever did drop an apprentice off with them, she never stayed long afterword. She would leave as quickly and abruptly as she appeared. Revan's not sure why she's still there and as he has come to suspect of her.

When he asked her why she was still there with them when it is so unusual for her, her response was, "The Force brought me to you for a reason, and while I come to learn of my purpose with those that came before you, I believe that there is a bit more to our time together." Then she left it at that. Revan was curious as to how she came to that conclusion but figured it had something to do with the Force, and he hadn't delved deep enough into his training to be able to accurately tell what it is.

"I'm mad because I did not leave my home because of my own choice," Revan finally settles on, figuring that was safe enough to say.

Meetra looks genuinely sad by that. "I'm sorry," she says, and probably means it. "Were you, like, sold into slavery or something?" She asks softly, dark eyebrows pulled together tightly. Revan could feel her reaching out to her through the Force, keeping a close eye on his emotions through it, which only serves to annoy him. He makes sure to put up his Force shields to make sure that she can't easily see what she wants. It's not as strong as she would have liked, but if he had his way, then no one would be able to see into his mind, whether it be through the Force or any other means.

"No," Revan says. "I was kidnapped. Me and my companions." An image flashes behind his eyelids, the men, dressed in armor. Their scarred faces, dark eyes. Their voices. Han knew Mandalorian, but he did not. It was still nonsense to him. He forces the image away, feeling sick to his stomach, but it's too late. Both of them must have seen the image through the Force, since both are so keen on him.

Meetra looks confused, but Alek looks mad. "Mandalorians," he whispers, a flicker of anger bleeding into the Force to accompany the word. It's at that moment that Revan knew where that unseen connection to Alek that he felt earlier stemmed from.

Their anger directed toward the Mandalorians. It wasn't a favorable foundation, but Revan can see that it is going to be the beginning of a long relationship. He's just not sure if it's going to be a friendship or not.


End file.
